My DVD player does not work with RW apparently. I did the same thing I had done before but used a DVD-R. The only problem is I have a full audio section on the DVD before the Video and audio start (I did not load any other audio files). I double checked and have no background audio loaded on the page properties. The only thing I can think of is when you drag the clip to the main menu it somehow loads an audio clip. Even though I just used a JPEG for the page background, I still have a button that apperently has video inside because it said it had to be "compressed". Thanks for the help. I did read the suggested area but still lack some intermidiate knowledge about chapters, starting points, etc. Also looks a little grainy but I think the gain of the camera shows up more because brightly lit subjects are very clear.

With the menu page showing on the desktop, look at the file list over on the right hand side of the work area. One on top is for template, or background. The one underneath that will load an audio file. Just clear that block if you don't want sound playing while the menu is showing.

You may want to check the File - Properties - Introductory media setting and see if you have something there. If you do, delete it.

if you have a playstation 2, it WILL play DVDRW...

alot of people forget this, but it does come in VERY handy sometimes!

One last question folks, what is the easiest way to erase projects? I had to go into C drive to erase the projects but can't seem to remove them from the DVDA list under file.
Thanks

Hi Don,

I had similiar problems. My solution was to change the sound from AC3 to PCM, after that I could play my home-made DVD:s in my standalone DVD player.

Good luck!

// Lazze

"My solution was to change the sound from AC3 to PCM, after that I could play my home-made DVD:s in my standalone DVD player."

you shouldnt have to do this...

your player should have a selection for PCM, MPG & DTS audio, by using PCM, you are not taking advantage of the compression used in ac3 encoding, do your audio is probably 3 times larger than what it could be if it was ac3.

not all players like the media, however architect conforms to standard DVD file system, so the ONLY reasonit wont play is due to a player not having access to DVD-r playback or teh DVD player itself isnt configured to decode ac3.
check the dvd menu, it should have a menu config setup info for your.

good luck

Does it also fix the problem with the sync tool not carrying the audio over from the top clip?

I tried making DVD's using "single movie" mode, now I am making coasters with no sound but nice video. Starting to get really frusterated as I have read everything and am no longer discovering anything of assistance. Now need new remote and almost needed new TV. On make movie I show both video and audio files on right side of page.

What does it take to burn a DVD with video and sound. I need a step by step method as so far nothing is step by step, my video is rendered to mpeg2 in Vegas then create an ac-3. Using Architect templates I have to render video then audio seperately, In menu mode do you have to drag both the audio and and video to the main menu, how do you merge the two as they are seperate buttons on the main menu. so far I have made everything but a good DVD, 1. DVD with audio and video but an extra audio in front of the video, 2. just audio, 3. just video, I am loosing patience fast. sorry, I seem to keep doing the same thing and getting different results.

Thanks for the advice guys, in Vegas 4 I don't see a PCM, is it called something else.

Success,

The only thing I did different was to not use jpegs for the button and front menu, I also made sure that I had both AC-3 audio and MPG video file on media properties, when it rendered it rendered 2 of 2 objects instead of 3 0f 3. Which is where I am guessing I picked up the additional audio track and subsequently tried to get rid of and deleted needed audio.

the possibility exists that the jpegs had something to do with it or I was letting frustration get the best of me, but I sincerely believe I had a good grasp of things but the possibility still exist that I just crossed over my own tracks so many times that I didn't know what I had.

Unless for some reason the jpegs had an effect, I will let you know soon.

Thanks for the help.

jpgs wont affect your audio, however they would need to be converted to video format then overlaid which Architect would do for you...

Did you actually import the ac3 file? or were you selecting the mpg2 for video AND audio?

in archtiect you will note that you can either import the ONE file twice (ie audio video off the same source) or you can import video with a different audio stream...

dunno if that was mentioned, but anyway...

the best solution for coaster free Architect burning is to use RW discs, then test them.

If they work fine, just run nero or prassi and do a straight 1:1 copy....

might be tedious to start off with , but its cheaper on media and saves on wear and tear on your equipment considering your burning so much...

It appears that dragging the rendered file onto the menu page (or just double clicking it) puts both the mpeg file and ac-3 file in the proper places on the media page (using the menu format).

As of yet I have not tried to make another using jpegs in the menu and buttons. It's highly possible I was confusing the object properties with the media properties. I did however always try to preview the project before burning and I always got sound and video? What would have helped me was a good description of the the menu page, object page, and the media page, I think then I would have known where the project needed to be and what should be listed in the page. And I believe
Edward tried to guide me to helpful places but instead I chose to pout and whine!! (I repaired the remote so this learning session only cost me 2 kitchen chairs!)

I am now more familiar with the "menu" format than the "single movie" format. The single movie format is where I had some problems and switching back and fourth only confused me. Perhaps importing into "single movie" is different and I was trying to learn 2 things at once.

I tried using RW disc but my home DVD player didn't like them, said it had a "read error, shut player off and try again" player is about 2 years old. Then again, I am more familiar with the software now and may try again. But I did try RW at first and needed to burn -R to make sure the blank media wasn't the entire problem. My windows media player in XP pro will not play the media in RW, says it has a read error.

Still trying to figure out best way to delete projects after they are finished?

Thanks everyone for their help

Mmm, still didn't work. I just got my GL2 like 2 days ago so i'll try to capture with that.

-Kay

which i got yesterday.. lo and behold i'm stuck on the same thing! Can y'all please advise me (again!) on how to get the .jpgs saved at 640x480?
thanks very much,
Nancy

Assuming you are on NTSC, You will get either 655x480 or 720x480 depending on whether or not you want square pixels. To get 655x480 (correct aspect ratio), just click on the Save Snapshot button. To get the full frame of 720x480, click on the copy to clipboard button and paste into your paint program. However, 640x480 is NOT an option.

If the date/time was not set on the camera when the tape was recorded, it will never detect scenes in Vegas. Scenalyzer can be used to detect via optical detection. Is the date/time set on the camera that recorded the tape?

<<<-- Originally posted by Glen Elliott : Does it also fix the problem with the sync tool not carrying the audio over from the top clip? -->>>


Not sure I completely understand the question. Sync Wizard has been working perfectly for me. One change between 1 and 1.5 is that the names are no longer case sensitive. I suspect this WILL fix your problem.

I captured interlaced footage then loaded it onto my hard drive via fire wire through Vegas 4.0.

1) I set the properties to NONE (deinterlace) and progressive scan. I even right clicked each clip and set the properties to deinterlace (progressive).

My footage still looked interlaced AND frame grabs still wobbled as if the footage was not deinterlaced. What am I doing wrong?

ALSO... I shot a wedding with my XL1s in FRAME mode and again set all properties to deinterlace and progressive. Frame grabs were AWESOME.

STUPID QUESTION #887: Does Vegas 4.0 see FRAME mode footage as 30p? What if I captured and edited FRAME mode footage and kept properties in deinterlaced mode?


HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP

In Vegas 4, there is a pull down menu above the preview window. It is probably set to "Best (auto)". Set it to "Best (full)" and then hit the save snapshot button (the floppy disk like button above the preview window).

Set the viewing size in the preview menu to 'full' and find a shot with interlaced artifacts. Go to the project properties and set the field order to "none (progressive)". Set the rendering quality to 'best' instead of 'good'. Set the interlace method to 'blend' or 'interpolate' rather than 'none'. Hit the apply button, and the picture in the preview window should become de-interlaced.

Is it possible to:

1) Have subtitles at the bottom of the screen with a black bar/box behind the text, to make it more readable?

2) Make the subtitles/text at the bottom of the screen scroll across the screen? The scrolling text/credits option makes the text scroll across the middle of the screen, and there is no option to put the text at the bottom.

I want to scroll website, post address, and other comments across the bottom of the screen during a 30 sec. commercial. Anyone have any generic suggestions on making it look 'professional'?

1) Yes.
2) Yes.

You need to create TWO additional tracks. One for the background color and one for the text. Place a black generated media on track 2 and use pan/crop and/or Track Motion to resize and place it. Then put the text on track 1.

The Position tab of the text media editing box can be used to position the text onto the black area and, by using keyframes, can also create moving text.

Okay. I will give that a whirl. I probably mucked it up somewhere along the lione.

Thanks

Still, can anybody answer part two of my question?

I've not used a camera with frame mode, but from what I have heard, what you download from the camera is 60i, it's just that the information in each field is 1/2 of a 30p frame (captured by the camera), so you can just go ahead and edit frame mode footage just like 60i footage - you probably shouldn't try to de-interlace it.

XM2 + Vegas 4.0c total knock out!!!

No problems with any connection - Firewire or using the XM2 as a pass thru for AV>DV works like slippery mercury . . . . However, using SONY Premium Tapes I need to FF and REW. to set the correct tape tension.

errr.... nothing more really - Killer Kombo - Yeah?

Grazie

Hi,
I need advices on how to make the subject in colour and the rest of the thing in the background or the video in balck and white?
I am using vegas.

yowsiang

It seems the only choice I have in Vegas is Mpeg1 352x288 !
This makes the VCD worthless as the resolution is so bad I could not even use it for Demo.
If I render to any other res. or codec. I can not view it on the dvd player.
I started with DV video from a VX2000
Looks great in preview. Look bad on VCD.
Any help?
I had wanted to use CD's not DVD's for handing out Demo's

Basically, you need to make a mask of some sort to allow the color to show through. Then you make the rest of the area black and white.

Generally, you need to have the multiple video tracks. Make the bottom-most track black and white. The simplest method (if you have an "area" that needs to be color) would be to then add the same clip on the track above and use a cookie cutter to only let that one area show through.

If you are truly wanting a single color (i.e. red) then you will need even more tracks. Keep the B&W on bottom but above that you will need at least TWO more copies - one for the mask and one to let the color show through. These tracks will need the parent/child relationship turned on. To pick the color and create the mask, you the Secondary Color Correction tool. I'm debating making this a topic in the next newsletter. Send me a picture to use and I'll get started on the article.

If you want complete control in creating VCDs, use Vegas to EDIT the video and render to the format you want (full size MPEG1). Then use some other program to actually create the VCD. Look at VCDhelp.com for more details on how to do this.

Heres a strange one...

To save time near the end of a project, I usually do a batch of editing and render (much like render to new track) but manual.

Then when I remove the original video files and replace them with the long mpg, I select disable resample. This way I'm thinking that the render will just copy all this and skip to the next bit.

Even by using the same bitrates and disabling resampling, I STILL have to wait until the WHOLE project is rendered.

It is in fact re-rendering my mpg, even though all it really needs to do is copy it (which would be faster than realtime).

OK so thats one problem...
Any ideas as to why it would be doing this?

I'm using the DVD Architect PALDVD25fps template in Vegas 4, so I'm not doing anything wierd...

now onto the second thng..

Last night I was doing this render and it took AGES... now thats cool, I'm only running a p4 2.4 without H/T at this time, so I wasn't expecting miracles...

Now here's the strange part..

ALL the raw video is on a dedicated Western Digital 120gb drive, this is then rendered to a different 120gb WD drive, then put back together to make the final finished project do its last render a lot faster...

okies, after leaving it run overnight, and the duration of my work (bout 20hrs tops) i get an error that vegas
"could not render the file due an unknown error"

Now I play the file in media player, and it plays fine, the difference is the part where the file falls, is where there is a heavy effect and transition, either way, it shouldn't make a difference, but the file itself is still fine...

My setup is that Vegas runs its temp/cache directory into a different drive to the raw/capture drive, then outpuits its finals to a seprate drive altogether...
eg of workflow
120gb holds teh raws
80gb temp directory for renders and prerenders
120 output drive.

this saves wear and tear on HDD's and speeds up the process

but it still doesn't explain why the app would die during a render...

temperatures here are gettin high, but im using an antec 1080 with a 480PSU and 5 fans so its rock solid,

any ideas why something like this would be happening?
Anyone else have issues similar to this?

Thanks for your help. What I would love is a definitive answer from a Vegas expert or rep from Vegas.

You're pre-rendering to MPEG2? If so, DON'T - you'll lose quality bigtime as the MPEG2 gets re-rendered even if you are going to MPEG2!

A better solution: Pre-render to DV-AVI and replace those areas with that rendered file. Then, when rendering to DV-AVI it will be copied and when rendering to MPEG2 the process will be much quicker as it doesn't also have to do all the dissolves or effects.

For your second problem, heat could still be an issue. The safest method is to render the whole thing to DV-AVI, load that file on the timeline and then render to MPEG2.

Whatever you do...VCD willallways compress your video to 352x240 NTSC / or 352x288 for PAL... and it will look somehow like VHS.

I wouldn´t expect much from VCD. I have special problems when there is fast panning images, as I get to see some image distortion.. like it was a badly compressed JPEG image.

If your demo isn´t too long try making a SVCD it´s a little better.

Hey Guys,

I currently have a wedding project that has 22 tracks. If I combine some of the tracks to reduce them down to 5 tracks total, would the rendering time be faster? The project is 2 hours long and it has taken about 12 hours to render 1:20 hours. When I was ready to send to dv tape the program crashed ( program not responding).

A response will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Al

Frustrated Editor

What's your setup?

I am using an older Compaq, 900mz Athlon etc. . . It takes me that long, at least. I usually only render a few tracks at a time.

My guess is that you would see very little difference in time. If there are no clips on the tracks anyway, there's really nothing to render except for the few tracks that DO have events.

Just getting into seriously using Vegas 4 for video editing. I just installed a Matrox Parhelia card in my NLE PC.

It's working just fine except I get no overlay playback on my NTSC monitor from Vegas. I do get from Media Player, Quicktime, PowerDVD. The After Effects plugin in works fine.

I realize I preview via firewire, but that means switching monitor inputs. I messed the Vegas video device settings without luck. Is there no overlay preview in Vegas 4?

Stephen, I'd ask this on the sonicfoundry forums to be sure, but I think that vegas doesn't use overlays. I have a G550 and have tried to get it outputing using DVDMAX and all that stuff but have had no luck.

I tend to be able to see if something is overlayed if I just grab the window and drag it around over the screen. Overlays tend to lag or overlap other windows for a short period. I haven't seen this with the vegas preview window which made me think it's software only.

Cheers
Aaron

Even if you got it to work, the colors wouldn't be accurate. Preview via firewire to see exactly what you will be sending to tape.

Thanks for the advice, but i di not seems to find the tool button to allow me to do a freeform maskout for vegas like photoshop.
Wondering if vegas has such function at all?

Suppposedly, the Parhelia does calibrate it's NTSC output (has full controls), but if it's not an option, I will stick with the firewire output.

Thanks for the info.

If you want people to see the commercial, do not put much information at the bottom. Put a web address, add shadow and let it stand still. That looks professional. The postal address and whatever will be at the web address anyway, and if they don't pick up on that, they won't pick up on your postal address and whatnot.

I've read the other threads. I have Vegas 4.0d (not the +DVD version). I've renamed the .m2t files from this site to .mpg and
was able to play in Media Player 9 but get the following message
when I try to import to Vegas: "An error occured while opening one or more files, the file format plugin for the specified file was not properly initialized." Any thoughts would be appreciated.

did you do a conversion from transport stream to program stream (demuxing) on the m2t files first?

Do this using the HDTVtoMPEG2 app v1.09

VEGAS:
have you download the mailconcept HD codec?

You have to do the masking by using other tools such as the secondary color correction tool. This will allow you to create a mask based on a color.

John,
Thanks. No, I haven't done either of these. Are both these required prior to editing in Vegas?
If you could describe the workflow (for example "first do this,
second do this", etc.) this would be helpful.
At any rate, do you know where to get the Mainconcept HD codec?
Dave

I've been told Vegas v4 reads TS files directly.

thanx for the response,
i tried doing it to dv avi, however it came up with the same unknown error.

its not an urgent or extremely important project, however it eventually worked and aretefacts were actualy very minimal, which surprised me...

usually i work in raw formats as much as posible, but this jsut baffled the hell out of me...

i thought it was heat also.. but the system was running extrmely cool consideirng the environmental temps