I never have backround space for photo montages. I maintain the aspect ratio but I zoom in to a 4:3 size even if the photo was a vertical dimension originally. I think it looks more professional if the photos fill all of the screen. The client really doesnt notice or care about maintaining the original dimentions of the photo, it's the content they see.

It's time for another issue of Vegas Tips, Tricks, and Scripts. The main focus of this issue is Snapshots - how to take a frame from your video and turn it into a picture. Tips are included for both Vegas Video 3 and Vegas 4. The Beginner's Corner article deals with getting video into the computer. The article assumes the video is being captured via firewire and illustrates many different ways to capture the video.

Issue #5 can be downloaded from http://www.jetdv.com/tts/archive/TTS01-05.pdf. The issue index has also been updated to include issue #5. As always, feel free to send in your questions, tips, articles, or anything else you think I might like to see or add to the newsletter. Your comments, ideas, and thoughts are always welcome.

Sony Pictures Digital to Buy Desktop Software Assets of Sonic Foundry

CULVER CITY, Calif. & MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2003--Sony Pictures Digital and Sonic Foundry®, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFO - News) announced today Sony Pictures Digital has struck an agreement to purchase all of Sonic Foundry's desktop software products and related assets for $18 million cash and assumption of certain trade payables, accrued liabilities and capital leases associated with the desktop software business.

The acquisition of Sonic Foundry's desktop software follows the recent retail release of Sony Pictures Digital's Screenblast® Movie Studio(TM) and Screenblast® Music Studio(TM) video and music-mixing applications created in conjunction with Sonic Foundry's award-winning software team.

Sale of the desktop software assets includes Sonic Foundry's popular, industry-leading ACID®, Sound Forge® and Vegas® series of software products, as well as other related assets. Sony anticipates maintaining the group's Madison, Wis. base. The Board of Directors of Sonic Foundry has approved the transaction and certain shareholders have agreed to vote their shares in
favor of the sale. Approval of the agreement may be subject to Sonic Foundry shareholder approval and other various conditions (see details below).

"During the past three years, we have come to recognize and admire Sonic Foundry's engineering expertise and value their software applications. We are excited to integrate this world-class team and their products into our ongoing efforts to produce and deliver

the next generation of consumer entertainment services," said Patrick Kennedy, executive vice president of Sony Pictures Digital.

"The sale of our music and video digital software products is a key
milestone in Sonic Foundry's history," said Rimas Buinevicius, chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry. "We couldn't pick a better partner than Sony Pictures Digital to carry on the same passion and success we've achieved over the past 12 years," he said. "Consummation of this agreement will give us the cash we need to pay our debt and allow us to focus our attention in writing the next successful chapter of Sonic Foundry's story - rich media - and building upon the early success we've already achieved with our Web presentation solution, Media Site Live(TM)."

Sony Pictures Digital oversees the digital production and online assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment and leads its efforts to develop and provide new forms of online content, games, interactive programming, open-access video-on-demand and wireless entertainment. Screenblast, which first debuted in September 2001, gives the consumer the ability to create, enhance and share their digital videos, music and photos with a combination of a powerful software suite and an easy-to-use online service for sharing and personalizing consumers' media. Screenblast Movie Studio and Screenblast Music Studio software have been available through retail outlets since October 2002.

Sonic Foundry will file a proxy statement shortly with the SEC and mail to investors of record as of April 25 detailing the proposed transaction up for possible approval at its June meeting in Madison, Wis. The company expects to close the transaction within a few days following the shareholder meeting.

The signed agreement marks a major milestone in Sonic Foundry's longer-term strategy to concentrate on markets where rich media solutions are being embraced. The company will use the proceeds to pay off debt and fund its operations for its Web-based rich media communications product, MediaSite Live and related offerings.

About Sony Pictures Digital

Sony Pictures Digital oversees the digital production and online assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and consists of four key operating business units: Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Online Entertainment and Sony Pictures Digital Networks which includes SoapCity, Screenblast, Sony Pictures mobile and wireless services, the studio's online promotional arm SPiN, and the UK interactive television service GoPlayTV. By making information and entertainment available anywhere, anytime on any connected device, Sony Pictures Digital is exploring new technology that links hardware with software in ways that advance the current boundaries of the entertainment landscape. For more information, please visit www.sonypictures.com.

Well the recent financials were definitely pointing to something like this.

Sony may have been the perfect acquirer for SF. I think it complements a lot of their consumer product line (audio, CD/DVD burners, DV cameras, etc., PC gear).

Price of the deal is very very cheap.

Only time will tell, but I have a feeling that this may be good for all the Vegas users at least in the development area. Time will also tell if support areas hold current levels.

Why is it that really good audio software companies keep on getting bought out by bigger companies?!?!?

Again, I'm going to take a "wait and see" attitude. Hopefully product support and upgrades will remain intact for the SOFO products.

This will be my third audio (video) software product who's company changed hands. I felt the painful sting when Apple purchased Emagic. (Can't upgrade anymore because I'm PC based and I don't have any plans to purchase an Apple computer in the near future. . . or any computer, for that matter.) I had just purchased Steinberg's SX program (also own Wavelab, Halion, Master Effects, and the two Guitar Plug-ins) when Pinnicle bought out that company. (So far, there's been no noticable changes, thank goodness!) And now SONY has purchased SOFO.

ARGGGHHHH!

I do hope that this will benefit us software owners of Sonic Foundry products. I own Vegas (3 & 4), Sound Forge, Noise Reduction and even purchased the effects package a couple of years ago. I like and use these products a lot. Especially Vegas 4.0.

I'm no business person by any stretch of the imagination. With this in mind, I ask. . . "Why are really good audio/video software companies being bought out???" Why can't SOFO just remain SOFO. . . and Emagic just remained Emagic and Steinberg. . . . . etc., etc. . . .

Ted

This really doesn't sound good to me. Sony isn't a software company.

I think it makes sense to get its hands on Video Factory and add DVD authoring. That could replace the mishmash of stuff currently shipped with Vaio Digital Studio models and make them even more attractive.

But Vegas? I shudder at the thought. Hard to imagine Sony eating Adobe's or Avid's or Pinnacle's or Apple's lunch.

Maybe I'll change my tune when I see what happens to my SoFo stock. The market seems to have liked the news today -- SoFo hit $0.59.

Small companies usually do 1 of 2 things.

1. Become big companies

2. Get bought by a big company

That's just the way it works.

SOFO was a dot on the map compared to the others in their space.

Everybody chill----Dr. Dropout of Sony Foundry (LOL) posted over in the manure field that two things should happen very shortly.

1. Next week there should be another update to DVD Architect and Vegas--

2. An announcement as to what the future will bring and it looks damn good---

Now if it was anybody else but the reliable Dr. Dropout then I would be upset---But this guy is right in the heart of Sony Foundry and has always been very reliable---.

I would be willing to wager that the development team stays intact (they must be relieved that a financially solvent company now pays them) and that improvements and evolution will speed up---. THe idiot CEO is gone and I think this is a very positive development.

NOTHING is ever free, david. For all that financial support, their soul has been sold to the devil. There will be a price to be paid...and I'm not talking $$$$. Been there, myself. It's always possible that things can get better, but, so's world peace. Chance of it happening...nil. Customer support will eventually go away, as will listening to their marketplace. Which by the way, is the small Indie maker and home pro. Sony will cast its eyes on bigger fish. I'm just a small one.

Agreement here--this does not bode well for the development of the Sonic Foundry product line.

A shame all around.

What--couldn't we have scraped together $18 mil and bought Sonic Foundry ourselves?

Just to clarify, Sony paid $18 million cash and assumed some liabilities (value unknown) to acquire the software, not the company. SoFo goes its own way. Sony owns Vegas et al.

From what I've read so far, the same software team will be involved going forward. Who knows for how long, but I guess the "chill" advice is warranted for at least the near future.

How can you say that Sony doesn't care for what consumers want---Have you ever heard of the Walkman, the Wega, the Handy Cam, the Vaio---what about the Playstation, the whole line of DV camcorders etc------

I think it best that people wait and see what Sony does with this gem they have purchased.

VV users should count their blessings. Sonic could not have continued very much longer. It's losses were mounting and in a slow economy few companies are buying. If another software/video company had bought VV it would have been absorbed into their present software (Premiere). Apple, who is cash rich (4+ billion) could have bought them and promptly discontinue windows support and merge it into existing products.

Sony may be the lesser of the evils. It could use a product like VV and may support continued expansion of the product line (VV lite). Apple has a three tier product line (iMovie, FC Express, FCP) that is proving very successful strategy. Sony may try to emulate Apple's success and i wish them well.

well, it's a good fortune for Sofo, for the time being. Unfortunately, I suspect the market niche that V4 occupies is not the niche Sony has planned. So, while the technology will live on, I'm afraid that the current user will lose out. We may see a good product thru the next upgrade, but, I betcha it will begin a major evolution away from its current market niche after that. And that makes me disappointed to lose an app that works the way it's supposed to.

I agree with Alex that Sony sells products in spite of itself. Memory Stick is my favorite example, a standard in Sony's eyes but in no other that ends up marring great products like the Clie.

On the other hand, it's hard to challenge David's point when I have a house full of Sony stuff. I eventually bought a Vaio for my wife's digital photography. I have high praise for Vaio support. When I was ready to move the Vaio to Windows XP, Sony had everything ready on its Web site to make that transition smooth.

So why do I agree with Alex? Because that XP transition was generic support, done (i.e., manufactured) once for all Vaios. Trying to get any kind of individualized support out of Sony is like pulling teeth. My Sony DRU-120A DVD writer is a good product, but I've had some troubles with it. Sony's help was pretty much limited to telling me to reinstall software (all third-party) and use only the versions specified on its Web site, that it could not be responsible for writing failures from other software, and then when I'd exhausted their patience with repeated calls, an offer to replace the device even though it wasn't clear that there was a hardware problem (in other words, getting me to go away).

Sony makes a lot of hardware and this kind of support is the result. What will happen when Sony is a software vendor?

Gentlemen gentlemen gentlemen and ladies too. Calm down. Just because a BIG guy bought out a little guy that many of us like and use doesn't mean doom and death to the little guy, at least not as yet. If Sony hadn't bought SoFo, or at least the line of product they did, did they, SoFo, have the resources to continue in the marketplace as a viable company for the next 5-10 years? Maybe, maybe not. The point is as someone said earlier, the big buy the little. That's called life in business. They would not have bought them if the product line was trash and nobody used it, but, with the customer base of the various products and the profitability that can be there, it to me is a great business move. Will customer support go the way of smoke signals, perhaps, but Vegas products have some of the most active and informative forums around. Will customer support go away tomorrow, a big NO. I don't see any reason to panic nor do I see any reason to rush out and buy something else. Hell, United Airlines went BK and they're still flying and will continue to do so for a very long time, so what's the difference?
Why the support could even be better, they might give us an even better program, they could give us all free beer and donuts with our next purchase (that's for you Harry:)) or they could close the doors.
In any case there really is nothing we can do about it so why sweat it? Life is far too short to worry about whether or not the company that manufactured my NLE will be around in the next 3 years, I would like to think we all have better things to worry about and concern ourselves with, so lets get on with editing with a good tool from SoFo. BTW, if they closed today, would your Vegas Video or any other software from SoFo suddenly stop working?
'nuff said :)

I think the first most likely scenario, is for Sony to bundle the software with their hardware, to enhance sales. Look for that to happen within the month.

a simplistic view, at best, Don. With HD editting on the very near horizon, the needs of pro-sumer users like myself will be changing very soon. This means that V4 will quickly become outdated and unable to match the capabilities of other NLE products. Now, I don't doubt that Sony will maintain the capabilities, but, at what price? The cost point may well go up, the ability of Sony to read the pro-sumer (as opposed to the fast buck consumer) market and provide what we need, is subject to question. In terms of keeping my own business competitive with a product that keeps me producing with a minimum of hassle and with professional features at a price that doesn't overburden my overhead costs, I'm worried about what application I will turn to. Maybe it will continue to be Vegas, maybe not. As a business owner, I can't afford to bury my head in the sand and pretend that everything is hunky dory in Oz.

Bill,
I'm not suggesting anyone do that. (put their head in the sand)Actually, I'm a little concerned as well as I just recently converted to V4 and like the product a lot, BUT, perhaps I look at things a little differently. 1) I can't change anything any company big or small is going to do so I can't worry about what they do decide to do 2) If they closed today, I along with all other users will still have a working viable product to use until we found something else 3)For myself and only for myself, I'm not worried about 24P or HD or anything else all I need is an NLE that will allow me to continue to edit the 40 or 50 weddings a year that I do, in the style that my clients want and to produce the corporate work that my clients desire and hire me to do.
I've been around business far too long to get upset when this company buys that one and so on down the line.
Perhaps it's because I know that in about 1 or 2 more years I will be hanging up the hat so to speak BUT in any case, can you or I change what SONY might or might not do, especially since we have no idea what they're going to do and I for one hate to ASS/U/ME anything.

Instead of everyone looking on the dark side of all of this, maybe, as Jeff suggested, Sony is going to have a shot at providing a decent PC based prosumer editing system. We all know the Sony XPRI high end NLE and maybe SOny is trying to offer something for the little guy. VV4 has proved to be a sucessful and popular NLE with a great easy to use interface, this bundled with some dedicated SOny hardware could be a godsend to the guys without the bucks for the XPRI.

You can all sit back and say I'm naive, maybe I am, but lets just wait and see before casting our stones.

For a video I am making I would like to have two separate videos playing side by side (like for a taping a telephone conversation). Does anyone know how to do this in Vegas 4? I tried cropping and track motion but I can only change the overall size of the events which leaves blank spaces at the top and bottom. I want them side by side filling the entire screen (kind of like what it looks like during a squeeze transition).

Any advice?

Dan,
use track motion but UNLOCK the icon to keep the aspect ratio the same. Then you can adjust the size to get exactly the area you want. If you don't care that the images will be squeezed a little bit. That's the only way I know how to do that effect, AAMOF, I'm working on a wedding video right now that I'm doing that with.

Yes, either Pan/Crop OR Track Motion can do what you want. Just turn OFF the Lock Aspect Ratio button OR hold down the CTRL key while resizing the box. Then move the box to get it positioned on the proper side.

Suppose one did not want the squeeze effect but rather to create a side-by-side effect by taking half the screen width of one clip, half the width of another, and placing them left and right?

Did I miss something about Vegas? Is it the case that crop always crops equally on all sides? With an image editor, of course, the crop can be any size, perhaps nothing removed top and bottom but something removed from both sides.

Nope. With the Pan and Crop OR the track motion you can LOCK or UNLOCK the aspect ratio for sizing. With a little keyframing on either one of those you can get some very very cool effects.
Oh yeah, there are also some free plugins that work really great as well.

Also, if you sqeeze only the left/right sides, you can move the "F" window left and right to move it ot the left or right side of the frame.

If you want the left half of one video clip and the right have of another video clip, there are even more options available. For example, you could use the cookie cutter, generated media with luminence, or any other of the tools that will block sections of video.

Very cool. That works great. Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the tips. I'll give it a try.

Hi all,

I was wondering if I have the correct process for burning
30p DVDs.

I did all of my taping using my GL2 set to Frame mode.

I created a new template in Vegas by modifying only
one thing in the current NTSC DV default template. Instead
of choosing between lower and upper fields, I set it to none-progressive.

I captured footage, edited away, and then rendered as
an mpeg 2 file. I modified the DVD NTSC template and simply
chose progressive again.

I am now ready to burn...or am I? Did I miss anything?
Will this play correctly on a progressive scan DVD player with 2-2 pulldown?

Thanks,
Cesar

Announcing the official release of Excalibur : Tools to slice through your editing tasks.

Excalibur was created by Edward Troxel and Gary Kleiner and includes 12 Wizards (tools) that are designed to speed you through many editing tasks, and are accessed through a pop-up interface that integrates seamlessly with Vegas.


Excalibur Wizards:


· Sync Wizard: Makes it a snap to synchronize any combination of video and audio events.

· Mutlicam Wizard: Instantly creates a finished edit with cuts and dissolves according to your instructions. Has to be seen to be believed!

· Gap Wizard: Automatically deletes spaces between timeline events with optional dissolves. Perfect for creating photo or video montages faster than you ever have before.

· Voice-Over Wizard: Takes less than a second to place volume envelopes to raise and lower the volume of an audio track based on wherever you have placed your narration.

· Orphan Wizard: Instantly places missing audio or video events back in your timeline in sync with their video or audio "parents."

· Unsplit Wizard returns events that have numerous splits to their original state.

· Velocity Wizard allows to you easily set a playback speed for your clip and automatically lengthens the event in the timeline to match the new duration.

· Marker Wizard automatically places markers at intervals or at the beginning of each clip. Perfect for making chapter stops for DVDs.

· Randomize Wizard shuffles clips in random order.

· Solo Wizard turns Solo on for selected track, and off for all other tracks.

· Align A/V Wizard restores sync to Video/Audio pairs.

· Fade Wizard allows you to set and apply specific fade lengths or fade to current cursor position. Also allows you to apply fades with a simple keystroke!


Pricing is:
CD with printed manual $36.00 USD
Direct E-mail with .pdf manual $29.50 USD
Order together with Vegas Video Editing instructional video and get $10 off!


For more information and link to an online demo, visit http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com

Excalibur requires Vegas 4.0b or above

Edward, It sounds fantastic! I do have two questions about Excalibur... How does it sync the audio? Is there a version for Premiere?
Thanks

Premiere - NO. It is a script for Vegas - hence the need for version 4.0b or newer.

I assume you mean the Sync Wizard. It is designed to simplify syncing multiple sources (i.e. multiple cameras, external audio from Minidiscs, ...)

To sync, you need to find a common point - such as a sudden noise. Then you find that point on the first camera and add a marker. Find that point on the second camera and add another marker. Find that point on the extra audio and add another marker. Then, the wizard will automatically sync all of the clips on the spot indicated by the markers. No more fiddling back and forth trying to get them synced.

I like that. It's a shame I'm not a Vegas user :(

Keith,

I remember thinking, "It is a shame I waited so long to become a Vegas user."

Too many things I like about Premiere, not enough about Vegas. You know, chocolate vs vanilla?

Let's not turn this into a Vegas vs Premiere thread. Both programs can edit video well. Keith likes Premiere. I like Vegas. This is a tool that simply makes Vegas better at several tasks.

It is like anything else. If it works for you - great. I had stability issues with Premiere through several versions and several machines. Just too damn buggy, at least on my computers.

If Premiere works for you and you like it, that is just fine.

I'm real happy with Vegas, well everything except the name. (I'm thinking of calling mine, Avid. No, I guess that name has been taken.) The Excalibur plugin looks very very interesting.

Ed---I ordered one---I am just wondering how long shipping is going to take----(I read to fast and didn't take the email version). Also, I never received any kind of confirmation that you received my order-----By the way, it's so simple yet so cool---real neat tool kit.

Edward, does this add-on make the velocity stuff easier to use? You mentioned something about the velocity... Hopefully you know what I am talking about, Vegas gets screwy when you change the speed and try to slice it and stuff...

David, Gary is taking care of all the shipping. I don't know what the turn-around time is. I'm sure it won't take too long.

Alex, The velocity wizard allows you to enter a percentage, just like in the velocity envelope. However, when you add a velocity of 50%, the clip will become twice as long. When you add a velocity of 300%, the clip will become three times as long. When you add a velocity of -75%, it will go backwards and be a quarter longer. It also allows a checkbox for freeze frame which will NOT change the length (actually, +/- 5% will not change length)

Edward, that sounds like something Sonic Foundry needed to add from the start, their velocity stuff with the bars is good, but it always screws up if you split the clip when its speed is changed, and reversing with vegas, hah, dream on.

Reversing is still the same. BUT it is easier than everyone makes it out to be. The key is to START AT THE END. Find the end if the clip (going forward) where you want the reversed beginning to be. Then SPLIT at that point. Now, add the revers to the clip to the RIGHT of the split and all should be well. Delete the clip to the left of the split and reposition the clip on the right and you are done!

The DVD spec does not allow MPEG-2 marked as progressive, so I don't think that's going to work for you. I think you're going to have to render as 60i interlaced (the standard template). I don't know if there are any progressive players that will sense that it's 30p (most look for 2-3 pulldown of 24p), but there might be.
///d@
P.S. The 24p template still renders 60i with pulldown (TFF/RFF) flags. That's what DVD allows. HD can have progressive frames.

Does anyone out there use VDC Easy and Vegas 4.0b on the same machine? I've been using VCDEasy 1.1.2 for the last eight months or so with no problems burning. Yesterday, out of the blue, I started to encounter buffer underruns "almost" everytime I tried to burn to a CD-R (simulated or not). I could burn to a CD-RW, but even that became sporadic. I did a virus check and it turned up nothing. I even upgraded to 1.1.5, it did a simulated burn OK once or twice, then it crapped out. And I've tried all the different settings in VCDEasy.

I installed Vegas about 2 weeks ago and I'm wondering if the VCD burning capabilities of it has loaded a dll that would make VCDEasy fubar. I'll try uninstalling Vegas, but that doesn't always ensure dlls will revert to their old state. And it was working so well . . . how irritating!

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/download/step2.asp?DID=447


Notable changes/fixes in version 4.0c include:
A bug has been fixed that caused RGB values to be clamped between 16 and 235 when rendering to MPEG formats.
A bug has been fixed that prevented markers from being saved to a media file from the Trimmer window.
A bug has been fixed that prevented rendering to QuickTime using fractional frame rates.
A bug has been fixed that could cause CD tracks to be offset or silent CDs to be burned when burning multiple copies of a disc.
A bug has been fixed that prevented you from choosing a custom frame rate when rendering to AVI with a non-DV codec.
Numerous scripting improvements have been made.

To get split screen with unsqueezed images in Vegas:
Track one, open track motion. Set Center values to 0 and 240 (288 for PAL). This shifts the image left.
Trach two, open track motion, set Center values to 720 and 240 (288 for PAL). This shifts the image right.
Use Pan/crop to shift the images so the action is within the narrowed frames (You only get half pictures).

Thanks Dennis.

I have done just that but since I have a PIII-550 working on this baby, it will be another 10 hours (18 to render) to prepare the DVD for burning.

I'll be sure to post back how it looks.

A couple of days ago I saw a DVD player in Best Buy that claims to do 2-2 pull down.

It looks to me, Tor, you are settings up the images above
eachother instead of next to eachother since you are doing
the devisions on the vertical 2 * 288 = 576 (PAL's vertical
resolution)...

So I think either your text "shifs... left ... right" is incorrect
or your calculation is.

Or am I missing something?

To the best of my knowledge you can burn progressive. Why
shouldn't you be able? The ONLY difference between progressive
and interlaced is a slight time difference between the fields.
With all digital files (including DV and MPEG) the information
is stored the same (a flag is set to indicate the difference). A
TV can play back progressive as well because it is still two fields
(only the time difference isn't there anymore). It might look a
little "off" but it will still do it.

If Vegas DVD has a progressive option then it is supported,
otherwise it would not be there. Just try it out and see what
you get!

(what it won't do is 24 fps progressive, that is being stored
with a 3:2 pulldown i think)

It works!
The reason it works is that what you are setting is the point where you want your image's centre to be. And you want one at 0 x 288, the other at 720 x 288.