I had this same issue, but only when I tried to print footage uncompressed, for some reason. Every other time it works.

Just goes to show how goofy computers and software can be. I have no problem doing PTT (I do a masterDV tape of everything)- Vegas 4c works fine going right off the timeline. Have you tried going from the capture screen?
Don B.

You could probably also eliminate it by changing smoothness to 0 (instead of the default 100).

I likewise have had no problem with PTT using Vegas 4.0c outputting to my Sony VX2000 and recording to miniDV.

It works fine when I view the video from the timeline, would you guys recommend recording from the timeline like that, is there a quality as good on the timeline vs. print-to-tape?

My problem was when I click on Capture Video, it opens up the Capture Video, Print-to-tape program and I can capture video just fine but I can't load any video to output.

I'm sending my signal from pc, out threw firewire, to Sony DVMC-DA2 converter box(which translate to analog), to my tv monitor.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Joe

OK, here's what I'm doing. Tell me what I'm doing wrong or why this is happening.

1) Import clip onto timeline. Clip was not captured with camera 16x9, it's just a regular 4x3 clip.
2) Use pan & crop to crop using 16x9 preset.
3) Render, select DVD MPEG-2 for DVD Architect, NTSC preset.
4) Go into custom settings for preset, set aspect ratio to 16x9.
5) Render MPEG-2. While it is rendering, it looks 'squashed' in the preview window (but that's OK, because preview window is 4:3), and there are very thin black bars on the left and right.
6) Watch MPEG-2 in PowerDVD DVD viewer software on the computer, and there are those pesky, very thin black bars on the left and right.

Why are these bars there?

Thanks
Bruce

Have you tried selecting the material you want to print, then goint to Tools/Print Video to DV tape? I've never used the capture utility to print.

This is a topic in the Sonic Foundry Knowledge base, item # 1418

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/SupportProduct.asp?FamilyID=30&Family=Vegas&TopicID=89&DetailID=879

I usually render to an .avi first and then print that to tape with the capture app. It works very well.

One problem many people have reported (myself included) is that Vegas does not appear to "see" the camera or device at the end of the IEEE 1394 cable. To this day I don't know exactly what was wrong. A couple of re-installs and some throwing out of applications (that I suspected might have laid undue claims on the link) did the trick.

Oh, there should be absolutely no difference between printing to tape from the timeline or via the capture app. But if you plan on doing it several times, having the .avi rendered on your drive will save time, naturally.

Were the bars there when looking at the 4:3 clip straight? Probably. I know my XL-1 has black bars on both sides of the image - about 4 pixels on each side.

Could you email the "digits" for your 16x9 preset? I never even thought of that--I've been laying a premade .png file over the video. Does your preset squash the video, or just lay black bars on top of it?

I right click on the clip, select the pan & crop, a new window opens up. From the pull down menu, there are a few options, default, 1:1, 4:3, 16:9 (widescreen), and 1.85(?):1 (academy). Also, you can hand enter all the height/width numbers, to create your own preset, but I'm not doing that.

In the DVD MPEG-2 option, when you hit custom, there's another pull-down menu on the Video tab that has 4:3, 16:9, and 2.35(?):1. In this menu, there are no other options.

One thing I don't understand is why there is no 1.85:1 option in the DVD MPEG-2 encoding option menu, but there is one for the 2.35:1 option.

There aren't any black bars when I just put the 4:3 clip on the timeline and render that way. Only when I crop to 16:9.

I'll do some more experimenting tonite and see if I can figure out where these bars are coming from ...

I think I figured out the thin bars problem.

I had to go to the project properties and select NTSC Widescreen for the project.

Then, when I go to set my crop for the clip, I have to right click on the picture and choose 'match project aspect ratio' (it's one of those options) and that gives me the right 16x9 box.

What I'm still confused about is why the 16x9 preset in the pulldown box is different than the 'match aspect ratio' option when the project aspect ratio is set to 16x9...?

not sure but this could be the "problem". NTSC and DV are not precisely the same format. DV isn't exactly 4:3. There is an overfill area on an NTSC monitor that you won't see except on your computer monitor because the image overfills the TV monitor and gets cropped off. When you make a 16:9, the overfill area changes. Many cameras, like an XL1s, generate thin black bars in the image knowing that these black bars will be "cropped" off when displayed on a 4:3 NTSC monitor. Problem is, you see them on a computer monitor and you "render" them when compressing. If you select "match project aspect ratio", V4 will stretch the image to eliminate those bars. Unfortunately, what you get is a distorted image frame to do this.

Ohhh... so maybe when I convert to 16x9 from my 'regular' DV, I should not match the aspect ratio, I should just use the 16x9 preset rectangle...

Hey, I think i've been using the crappy Microsoft DV codec instead of the sonic foundry one, how do I know which one is in use? When I go to capture video in Vegas video, it says "microsoft DV and camera" for what I capture with from my camera. Uh??

Options - Preferences

Two check boxes relating to codecs

"Ignore 3rd party codecs" and something else. (Can't think of the two names off the top of my head.)
Make sure they are checked properly.

I found something odd with Vegas. With certain large (greater than 4 GB) files, it seems not to want to read anything past the 4 GB mark. Is this normal? Is there any way to fix this? It does not happen with every large file either, just certain ones (apparently ones that came out of Adobe Premier).

Thanks.

First off, what OS are you using?

Adobe Premiere uses the Microsoft DV codec by defualt, and Vegas 4.0 uses Sonic Foundry's DV codec by defualt, usually theres no problem mixing the two between NLE's (I do it all the time) but there could be for some reason.

I'm trying to change the pitch of only one audio track in a project to make it faster. For some reason even when I go through and add the pitch effect throught the tools tab it doesn't apply the effect. It works if I apply the effect to the "master" control under Mixer, but I don't want it in the whole project. What am I doing wrong?

im actually doing an edit as i write this.. the file is 18gb... using XP pro and vegas4...

have u configured vegas to be able to create files alrger than 4gig? Also are u running NTFS or Fat32?

u shoudl be running NTFS if u want to work with larger files

I am pretty new at this and working on making my first actual movie. I am taping certain shots for the movie out of sequence and want to begin editing the scenes I have completed and then add things to the project as they are finished. Because of advice from this site I am able to add time to my timeline and so I can insert scenes without trouble, but I don't know if there's a way to delete time from the timeline to eliminate gaps. Is there a way to do that?

Also, how do you prerender a scene so that you can see it the way it will really look (my preview usually adds some blur which is fine in most situations, but when trying to perfect a certain effect I'd like to be able to see the scene the way it will look when rendered). The manual shows how to prerender a whole track, but I want to prerender a time sequence spanning several tracks.

Thanks

Just hold down the CTRL key and resize to the new desired length.

Vegas can easily read files > 4GB. However, certain TYPES of AVI files are limited in size. If these files were not captured in Vegas, you may need to recapture

Here is the way I do it:

1. Edit a scene and get it like I want it.
2. Render to an AVI file
3. Repeat 1 and 2 for other clips
4. Create a new final project using all of the previously rendered clips

"have u configured vegas to be able to create files alrger than 4gig? Also are u running NTFS or Fat32?"

How is that done?

Yes obviously I am running NTFS, otherwise I wouldn't be able to create >4 GB files to begin with! :) XP pro is what I'm using. Certain files it's fine with, others it's not. I created these particular clips in Premier, and then am trying to manipulate them in Vegas. Vegas won't read any content beyond 4 GB.

Dan, if I'm understanding you correctly you should just be able to select a time range on the timeline, then select Tools->Selectively Prerender Video, or you can go Tools->Render to New Track which will render the selected timeline range and place that in a new track.

Make sure when you do this, that you have all the tracks enabled that you want to render.


To delete time, select the time range in the timeline, hit Crtl-L which will turn on Post Edit Ripple, then hit Delete. This will delete the selected area, and the Post Edit Ripple will move everything to the left to close the gap. PER has a couple of settings allowing you to select which tracks it affects, so make sure it's set correctly. You can also access it from the Edit->Post Edit Ripple menu, or the tool bar.

Cheers
Aaron

Thanks for all the great feedback.

Edward, I had considered doing what you mentioned but was afraid I would get generation loss when creating an avi and then importing it back into a new project? I assume since you are doing it that way that it is a negligible loss in quality.

Wow, that was easy. Thanks!

<<<-- Originally posted by Dan Measel : Thanks for all the great feedback.

Edward, I had considered doing what you mentioned but was afraid I would get generation loss when creating an avi and then importing it back into a new project? I assume since you are doing it that way that it is a negligible loss in quality. -->>>

With the Microsoft DV codec (that premiere and others use), maybe after about 10 re-encodes, but with the Sonic Foundry DV codec (that Vegas uses) you can re-encode as many times as you want without any quality loss. I know this because of a test in a review a while back of Vegas 3.0.

Heard about the recent buy out of several Sonic Foundry's programs by Sony, including Vegas. Does this mean anything bad for us up and comming Vegas users. I just bought the program and the training discs- I hope Sony won't ruin the direction Vegas was going...it seemed so far ahead of the competition supporting HD and 24p ect. I hope they have some of the same programers, etc working on future upgrades/versions of Vegas. I'd hate for it to fall to the wayside after the Sony buy-out. Anyone have any input on this?

Let's hope that they don't take away HD support in the next version and release Vegas HD at 10x the cost!

As long as you are not making additional changes (transitions, effects, ...) you are simply COPYING the file with absolutely NO generational loss. If you place a dissolve between two clips, you will gain another generation. However, in that case I'm usually working with straight clips before the dissolve making the dissolve the FIRST generation.

Unless and until I see something to indicate otherwise, I'm going to assume the best. The Vegas engineers are saying this is a GOOD thing.

Would it surprise you to learn that this has been gone into very much at the Sonic Foundry Vegas forum? Or that no one has been able to come up with anything certain about the future of Vegas (and the other excellent SoFo desktop applications)?

Edward is right about Vegas engineers saying it's a good thing. And apart from the occasional paranoia the users seem to be calm about it, too. I think one piece of good advise is to look out for bargains from SoFo. They may be wanting to sell off some items before whatever it is that will happen, happens. Make sure you're on their maillist for news and promotional stuff.

Wont that change the "lenght" that the audio plays. Can't you change the pitch without altering the length of the clip's audio?

Open the clip's properties. There's a menu for Method, where you select Change pitch, preserve lenght.

Did a search on this subject, didn't seem to find the answer.

Is the Acedemic Version the same as the regular retail version? I could get the Student copy, but what the whole shootin' match.

Any thoughts?

Jeff Troiano

It's the same.
But on any rendered project a small red L is displayed in the corner. (joke!)

Try a search on "Vegas Academic Version"! :-)

In response to the original question:
You can select a segment of the timeline (mute any track you don't want included) and render it, having selected render loop area only. Then you'll be able to see what that sequence will look like in the final render.

About deleting time, please read up on Ripple Edit. I'm not sure I fully understand it myself. But I know the answer is there.

You can also right click the audio track and "apply non-realtime effects events" (or something like that) and you can do a whole bunch of stuff to the audio.

<<<-- Originally posted by Glen Elliott : Wont that change the "lenght" that the audio plays. Can't you change the pitch without altering the length of the clip's audio? -->>>

Yes, CTRL-Drag changes the length of the event. The original post mentioned wanting it to play faster.

And, yes, you can also change the pitch without changing the length. There are many options related to this when right-clicking the audio clip and choosing Properties.

this is where sonic foundry shine...

audio...

the best thing about it is that u can open the audio in soundforge for refined audio work in total sync to the video...

Are you using Type 1 or Type 2 for the AVI file ?

I'm not sure if there is any limitation for one of it.

Dany

I don't think Premier can specify Type 1 or Type 2.

The odd thing, again, is that the files are fine when viewed by Premier or Media Player, but Vegas won't read anything beyond 4 GB, and the reason that I know this is that the file is about 5 GB and the part that cuts off is about 4/5 of the way through.

I guess I'll just have to split the files up.

If you use ScenAnalyzer you can capture (and also export) but also specify Type 1 or Type 2 file (+ a lot of additionnal features).

But in your case it looks like the problem is elsewhere.

Dany

The academic version is the same as the commercial version.

There is no academic version, only academic pricing.

There are no restrictions on what you can do with it.

When you register, you are entitled to the same support from what I've heard.

Journeyed.com has Vegas 4 with DVD Architec for
269.00. Vegas without DVD architect for 149.

With DVD Architec you get AC3 5.1 encoding capabilities.

check around for the best prices.

Hi,

Which MPEG encoder is in Vegas 4.0 ? Did Sonic Foundry make their own?

Vegas 3 and 4 use the Main Concept mpeg encoder.