Everyone has been very helpful on this subject. Thank you all so much for your time. You have made my decision very easy in choosing a NLE program.

I may be wrong, but I think AVI type 2 are avi files that can exceed the 4gb file size of the original avi spec. I know there may be more to it, but thats at least one of the differences.
avi2 is the default uner win2k and xp when capturing (assuming you are using ntfs, not fat32). Surprisingly, from what I've heard, AE still doesn't support avi type 2 files. Has that changed recently? does Quicktime still have a 4gig limit?

I'm a caveman, and I still use Win 98. Can I work with AVI2 under this OS?

Quicktime has a 2gig limit on FAT32 systems.

Jeff

I was wondering if it is possible to eliminate background noise with Video Vegas? I taped some footage with my Canon XLS-1 and I notice there was some background noise during a speaking part. Can the background noise be eliminated?

Sonic Foundry makes a DirectX plug-in called noise reduction that is rated quite excellent. But it does cost.
You might want to go to
http://www.directxfiles.com
to find links to less expensive ones if you are on a budget. Most people I know swear by the sonicfoundry plug-in, but at 279.00 it's not a trivial purchase.

Thank you so much for help with this question.
I appreciate the link as well to find other prices!

You can also play with the built-in equilization tools to try to reduce the frequencies where the noise occurs. This has helped me many times.

Edward you wrote:

You can also play with the built-in equilization tools to try to reduce the frequencies where the noise occurs.

Are these built-in equilization tools in Video Vegas? Is that what you are referring to?

thanks

To get answers for Vegas Video 3.0, I strongly suggest you visit:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowTopics.asp?ForumID=4

This is their user support forum. Excellent support from techs as well as other, expert users of Vegas Video.

Yes, the equilization tool that are built-in to Vegas can help you bring out certain frequencies while reducing others. There are two main equilization tools: Track EQ and Graphic EQ.

Graphic EQ equates to a typical equalizer.

Track EQ is different in that you can specify 4 frequencies, set whether to amplify or decrease, and pick the bandwidth to effect. It is an interesting control that takes experimentation. Fortunately, you can make changes in real time and listen to the results.

Just wanted to let you guys know that Sonic Foundry (makers of Vegas Video) have announced AC5.1 and DVD encoding plugins for Acid Pro 4.0.

I'm assuming this means that Vegas Video 4.0 will also have this ability when it comes out.

Also, I heard that the price tag for VV4.0 might shoot up, as it gains market share, so you might want to get 3.0 now, if you're thinking about it.

Also, for people with VV3.0, check this out:
http://www.debugmode.com/winmorph/

apparently it's some kind of new video plugin that allows you to do Michael Jackson style morphing.. remember at the end of Black Or White? that kinda stuff. Its in beta, but it could be cool to check out.

If VV4.0 has DVD burning abilities, as well as 5.1 encoding, and the already excellent Noise Reduction plugins... this might be *the* premier NLE for PC.

-Eric

this is pure speculation on my part... What will most probably happen is SoFo will make it easy to move from Vegas to Acid for final output. It would made sense for Acid to be able to read .veg files, let you make further audio adjustments then render verything out without having to go back to Vegas. Or they will come out with a seperate professional DVD authoring app the will take the projects from both. Or...

you could be absolutely right.

here is my rationale for thinking the plugs will be available in VV4.0

when people found out that acid4.0 would support 5.1 mixing, the vegas community @ the sonic foundry forums freaked out, and said they wanted it for VV4.0. An official person @ Sonic Foundry hinted at the fact that this support would also be in VV4.0

Then once the 5.1 dvd burning plugs were announced, in the vegas forums we saw this post:

The burning utility will let you burn your surround mixes to DVD, but that is all it does- this is not a full blown authoring tool. The 5.1 encoder is where the value is-this thing will sell for less than half of any other 5.1 AC-3 encoder currently on the market. The encoder works with ACID 4 only at of right now, so be aware of that.

Note the usage of 'as of right now', I assume this means that once 4.0 comes out, Vegas will be able to use those plugs as well.

We can only hope :)

-Eric

VV has alawys been a pretty good package. The only thing I would like to see Sonic Foundry add is support for Canon 4-track.

I am a Cinestream user, who is very disappointed with the owners Discreet. I think CS is a great package and works well, but no one can tell whether Discreet is going to can it or not. Considering how well it works, I can stick with it for years.

Among the CS user groups, VV is held in high regard. Most people think VV is worth purchasing for its video compressors alone. If they add a DVD system, I think they will have a winning product. However, if they want a significant part of the market, they will have to keep the pricing attactive or they will drive potential customers to the Adobe Suite.

Most of the time when someone mentions extra firewire features like 4-track, the recommendation comes out to use Scenalizer Live. It's a standalone firewire capture tool with alot of really nice features, and only costs $40. http://www.scenalyzer.com

Can't comment on it personally since I don't use it, but it's got a free demo to try...

Nathan, as a former FreeDV/EditDV user, I was totally disappointed how discreet handled things. I always felt VV3 was what EditDV could have been under the right leadership. Discreet only wants to stay involved in the high end. There was a great on line community of FreeDV users, learning how to edit...using the software.... Discreet simply shut it down.
It would be great if SoFo offered some sort of low cost cross-grade pricing for Cinestream users.

You would enjoy the VV comunity much better than the Cinestream one, not just because of the users(who are a great bunch), but because SoFo is listening to their customers.

The way Discreet has handled the whole EditDV/Cinestream issue is appalling.

Good Luck.

I agree about Discreet. Still Discreet supports a CS users group which they allow to run unimpeded. Great bunch of people there too.

VV is excellent package which I have tried. CS 3.1, however, performs extremely well and with the tutorial CDs from Claire Watson and Ron Bridegroom makes it a rocking system.

The simple truth about CS, is even with it faults (audio mostly) it is quite powerful.

Like you say I would be very happy with VV, and if they make another rock bottom offer again on their system I might well purchase one.

Nathan, this is pure speculation on my part....

Maybe if you got enough CS users together and aproached SoFo for low cost cross- grade they might listen. Ask them if they would give you the full version at a Student Price, or at least around the $200.00 mark. All they can do is say no.

actually, if you buy VideoFactory2.0 from Sofo for $59.99 I think it is, you can then buy the upgrade to VV3.0 for $199.99

$260 isn't that bad as opposed to the $420 list price

I'm still getting around Vegas, great little program. There's one clip of footage I want to use, but is a bit shakey. So, I'm going to pull a single frame and loop it instead. How does one accomplish this in Vegas?

I could always screen capture, and paste into a photo editor, save it, and import as a BMP/PNG but I'd like to get to know Vegas' way of clip manipulation.

I don't have vegas open here in front of me, but if I recall correctly, run the clip you want to grab the frame from in the preview window and pause it on the frame you want.

on the menu of the preview window will either be the save icon, or a camera icon, and click that. Vegas will ask you what/where to save the picture. Once you do that it should load into your media pool.

Grab it from the media pool and import it into the timeline. If I recall correctly single frames default to either 5 or 10 seconds, just grab the right hand side of the image as you would any video clip and drag it to the right for as long as you need it.


Hope this helps

-Eric

If I want to freeze a specific frame for a period of time, what I normally do is insert a Velocity Envelope and set the speed to 0%. In your case, split where you want the freeze frame to start, Insert a Velocity Envelope on that clip, right-click the little square on the left end of the line and choose Set To. Then enter 0% to freeze on that one frame.

The Velocity Envelope can also be used to create slow motion and/or reverse the footage (play it backwards).

Also, right-click the clip, choose Properties, and check the boxes for Resample and Reduce Interlace Flicker.

OK, I have been evaluating Premiere and Vegas Video 3. I like Premiere, but gave up as it is not as easy to use as Vegas. I also am looking at Pinnacle Edition DV. Editions is actually noce and does everything I want, but it is too expensive compared to Vegas and is also slower and the interface is noce, but sluggish at times.

Ok the questions;
In Pinnacle products with TitleDecko you can create title boxes or circles, etc shapes I use as thought bubbles and stuff. I create the shape then put text over (in) the shape and then lay that title on the scene. Great comic relief for some of the fmaily videos, especially for adding comic jabs of what the pets may be thinking.
I don't see a way to do that in Vegas. Actually Vegas Titles seems rather weak.

In Pinnacle Studio if you make/render your project back to AVI it defaults to DV codec and any fields/frames that have not been altered are just output exactly in their original format, thus no re-render or loss of quality. I don't see a way to do that in Vegas, or for that matter to output it back toa DV codec based AVI. Can Vegas do this and also? I ask this because I like making my MPEG2 files with TMPGENC and want to start with an AVI that is as good as possible.

Can Vegas output a finished product to tape like Studio can?

And finally did I miss something or doesn't Vegas allow you to create Quicktime files?

And yes for those of you following my escapades, I am leaning heavily toward Veags after first shying away form it, I just needed more time to get aquantied with how to do certain tasks in it. Their biggist weakness form what I can tell is the titler.

THANKS!

Vegas' closest tool to an arbitrary geometry generation is the "Cookie Cutter" FX. You can apply it to a text clip to make the ellipses and such you are going for. It does squares, circles, ovals, triangles and such.

Vegas intelligently re-renders sections which need it, and intelligently doesn't re-render those sections that don't. If all you do is jump cuts, it'll never re-render. When it does, it uses the Sonic Foundry codec, still one of the few non-Sony based DV codecs out there, and worlds ahead the MS codec that Premier relies on. "NTSC DV" should be the default choice under "video for windows (avi)". However, I don't think TMPGENC can read DV avi in, I think you're forced to use completely uncompressed avi (I'm not an authority here, I haven't done any mpeg2 work).

For tape printing, either use the "Print to DV Tape" option under Tools, or render first as a DV avi and then print to tape using the capture tool.

Vegas can render QT just fine. Make sure you have the authoring tools installed. (I have QT pro, and rendered a mov last week without incident)

The titler is certainly better than it used to be, and it may just take some getting used to. If you have specific suggestions on improvement, post them at the Sonic Foundry forums for Vegas, or write the guys directly. They're doing everything they can to make Vegas 4 the undisputed NLE champion of the prosumer DV space.

Brian,

Thanks! Actually TMPENC can read DV AVI, I do it all the time. I did find the quicktime stuff. I did not see the DV default for AIV, btu then I have the demo version so who knows what it does or does not do. I am actually toen between Video Vegas and Premiere. I am playing with both and find Vegas easy to grasp, but want to make sue I am not giving anything up by not picking Premiere. Of course it is hard to compare when all Adobe has for a demo is 6.0 so I am not sure how much better 6.5 would be. I am also concerned about "plug-in" support down the road, seems Premiere has plenty of third party support. I guess I will swing back and forth for the next month as I demo both products. Thanks for your answers!

Yeah, I think the demo version of Vegas doesn't include the DV codec. It is excellent though.

Plugins are a bit of an issue, depending on what kinds of effects you are interested in doing. For audio, Vegas beats Premier hands down by supporting any DirectX audio plugin. In the video FX area that it can be a little weak. Sonic Foundry has offered a free video plugin development kit, and a few promising leads have developed, such as Pixelan's SpiceMaster, and debug mode's WinMorph. SoFo also has an extra plugin pack, with some additional transitions and video FX. Some would argue that you don't need extra FX and transitions to make a good production, but I'm not going to go blowing smoke... :-)

If nothing else, keep using the demo until Vegas 4 makes it out (most sources say sometime Q1'03), and I'm pretty sure it'll blow Premier completely out of the water.

"In Pinnacle products with TitleDecko you can create title boxes or circles, etc shapes I use as thought bubbles and stuff. I create the shape then put text over (in) the shape and then lay that title on the scene. Great comic relief for some of the fmaily videos, especially for adding comic jabs of what the pets may be thinking.
I don't see a way to do that in Vegas. Actually Vegas Titles seems rather weak. "


I will agree that Vegas is a little weak in titling, although the titling CAN be modified in a variety of ways. However, you CAN use other programs to produce the titling and then import these titles into Vegas. So, if TitleDecko does what you want, just render to an AVI with alpha channel and import that into Vegas.




"In Pinnacle Studio if you make/render your project back to AVI it defaults to DV codec and any fields/frames that have not been altered are just output exactly in their original format, thus no re-render or loss of quality. I don't see a way to do that in Vegas, or for that matter to output it back toa DV codec based AVI. Can Vegas do this and also? I ask this because I like making my MPEG2 files with TMPGENC and want to start with an AVI that is as good as possible."


By default, Vegas renders to NTSC DV type AVI files. For all areas that have no effects, the "render" simply copies the files (i.e. NO CHANGES). For areas that MUST be rendered, such as dissolves and other effects, Vegas uses its' own codec that has been proven to be much better than Microsofts and, at least equivalent, to the best codecs available. So, yes, Vegas "can do this"

As far as MPEG2, Vegas includes the Main Concept MPEG-2 encoder which, with the proper settings, has given me MPEG-2 files that are as good as TMPGenc without the necessity of creating the interim AVI file. You can render MPEG-2 straight from the timeline.



Can Vegas output a finished product to tape like Studio can?

Yes, just choose Tool - Print Video to DV Tape. It will then render everthing that needs rendering and then print the final product to tape - with or without device control.



And finally did I miss something or doesn't Vegas allow you to create Quicktime files?

Yes it will - as long as the authoring tools are chosen when quicktime is installed (requires the "custom" option when installing quicktime).

the demo version of VV and the VV LE version do NOT use the SOFO ( VV) DV codec . the codec is in the software but until you enter a serial # you do NOT have access to it. therefore VV will default to using the ms codec until a serial # is entered.

""In Pinnacle products with TitleDecko you can create title boxes or circles, etc shapes I use as thought bubbles and stuff. I create the shape then put text over (in) the shape and then lay that title on the scene."

in VV ... you'd create the outline by creating a still photo in your graphic/photo program ... then in VV you could insert the letters inside the outline. using the DEFORM you could mould the letters to the shape of the outline ...

video track 1 = still outline
video track 2 = vv titles
video track 3 = clip

Thanks to those responding. It appears that my Demo does not have the DV codec and I do see that it can do quicktime. I am really liking Vegas and am close to making the plunge, It seems very fast and does not hog system resources like Pinnacle products do. Thanks again!

I think you will like VV. As a Cinestream user, VV is my second choice. However, since Discreet's ultimate plans CS are completely unknown, I am keeping a close eye on VV development.

A couple of things whether you go Premiere or VV. If you are using Canon 4-track audio, you will need to Scenealyzer. Both Premiere and VV do not support 4-track. I hope VV 4.0 incorporates 4-track.

If you go VV, see if you find someone with a student ID. This allows you to get the gut-rate price on VV.

The best feature of Premiere is the ease with which you can integrate it with Adobe suite of products. If you do not think you are going to spend the buck$ on these items, Vegas may win out.

What people are saying about importing your effects is pretty much true. If plug-ins were the end all, none of the other NLEs would be popular. Plug-ins *may* make some things easier, I really haven't missed them in CS.

if you decide on Vegas ..shop around ...

consider buying from sonic foundry the "digital video and audio production" book that has tutorials for VV .. for the $49 you also get Vegas Video LE , sound forge XP v5, ACID express, loops for acid ....

you can upgrade from VV le to full version of VV for 199 ...total price for full version ( 49 book + 199 upgrade) = 248 ... vs. 419 at SOFO , 349 from goodguys

VV works excellent with a pyro basic 1394 (approx 49)


note that the VV LE version does NOT let you use the SOFO DV codec ... it defaults to the ms dv codec

If you use Scenalyzer to capture the second stereo track, the newest beta version will capture Video and Stereo 1 in an .AVI file and Stereo 2 in a .WAV file IN ONE PASS - all over firewire (no sound card connection required!)

To get the newest beta version, you have to send an e-mail to the author requesting it.

"in VV ... you'd create the outline by creating a still photo in your graphic/photo program ... then in VV you could insert the letters inside the outline. using the DEFORM you could mould the letters to the shape of the outline ...

video track 1 = still outline
video track 2 = vv titles
video track 3 = clip"



Donatello, Don't you have tracks 1 and 2 backwards? The titles should be on top - otherwise the still will COVER them.

Actually the demo of Vegas does use the Sonic Foundry DV codec.
It will however place a Sonic Foundry frame on the output every few seconds.

Hmm, I need to explore my demo version, it seems to be missing a few things, maybe I did something wrong or it is clashing with all the other demos I have installed, Premiere, Edition DV, etc

Thanks for the feedback!

"Donatello, Don't you have tracks 1 and 2 backwards? The titles should be on top - otherwise the still will COVER them."

EdwardTr you are CORRECT ... thanks

video track 1 = vv titles
video track 2 = still outline
video track 3 = clip

keithluken, You can also "turn off" the sonic foundry codec by going to Options - Preferences. To use the sonic foundry codec, you need to make sure that you put a check beside "Ignore 3rd Party Codecs" and DO NOT have a check beside Use "Microsoft DV Codec".

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually ordered Vegas and Premiere today, seems my sis is a teacher and teachers get really great discounts! I got the Adobe DV Collection (Premiere, After Effects, Photo Shop and Illustrator) for only $475!! And Vegas was $146! Can't complain about that pricing, so decided not to choose, but to get both!

Hello all,

I want to know how to perform deinterlacing in Vegas 3.0. I just start using it and can't figure it out. I set property of the project and set one of the project property to "Blend" but output .mov is still interlaced.

Can someone help? I m sorry for stupid question

double check your current opened project properties - FILE - PROPERTIES -
Video - ADVANCED - BLEND FIELDS

on you VV time line do a RIGHT CLICK on the CLIP ( video track) PROPERTIES ..put checks in the RESAMPLE and Reduce Interlace flicker boxes ...

I can't figure out how to add a logo to my video. I can do it in premier easily, but Vegas is so warped... how do I do it?

Anne--

I don't understand why you're having a problem adding a logo to you video. Regardless of the format--still or motion--it's imported into the media pool like any other file, then drag it into the timeline. How is that "warped"?

Anne,

You should be able to easily add text to your video in Vegas.

At the top menu bar click on View. Then click "Text and background". This will open a window with various options for inserting text or backgrounds. You can move these to your project by dragging it to a new track. For instance, if you want the text to be seen on top of your video, choose the sample text with the checkiered background. Drag it to a new track above the video track. Once this is done another window will open to allow you to edit and set preferences. For further editing of text once it is placed in your project, right click on the event and choose "Edit generated media". You can "dock" the generated media window onto your workspace so it will be available to you at any time. When all else fails, take a look at the manual that Vegas provides. Not the small one that comes with the box. There is a more complete manual on the cd that is in a .pdf format.

Hope this helps.

Create the logo in photoshop with a transparent background. Import and set up a video track above your main video track---that should do the trick.

I was going to suggest the Photoshop thing too. Remember, when you create in photoshop for video, there's a conversion that needs be done. I BELIEVE you create in photoshop with a canvas of dimensions width = 720 by height = 534, and this will give you the look it'll have on video. However, before you save it in whatever format you use for video, you'll want to change the height dimension to 480. This will look squashed in photoshop, but correct in Vegas Video.

Also, 72 dpi, unless you're doing pan and scan, and then 300 dpi. Color mode is RGB.

A more detailed explanation can be found here:

http://www.lafcpug.org/basic_ps.html

It's meant for Final Cut Pro, but it'll work on any NLE.

Actually, You can set your canvas size to 655 x 480 (for NTSC) to begin with and it transfers fine into Vegas without any distortion. Also, if you have transparent backgrounds, use .png or .tga file extensions.

655x480 is what most reccomend. Also export as a PNG file with alpha channel.

Thank you all. I think the help file confused me because it says I should make a solid background. Now I did transparent it all work out. I m start liking Vegas.. :o)

Vegas Video Rules!

The best decision I have made in the last year was to migrate the lions share of my editing to Sonic Foundrys' Vegas Video.

Why am I convinced of this today you ask?

The more I become comfortable with this program the more powerful I realize it is. My customers are complimenting my work more than ever and more plugins are showing up for Vegas.

NEWS: New awesome 3D plug in pack for Vegas released today!

See the link below and if you have a copy of Vegas check it out.
Here is a sample of just one of it's capabilities:
http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/textdisp?chienworks-st-text-scroll.txt

Hey, and don't bother getting out your wallet, It is FREE!

I remember this feeling when I first started using Canopus products.
It sure is nice to feel it again.

You get the feeling that the Vegas users are excited about this software. VV has created a very talented user base. So talented and convinced of the potential of VV that they are writing plug-ins like this.
What a great creative tool. Just thought I would share my excitement.
Regards,


http://www.debugmode.com/pluginpac/