GYGD100 SD 50p Vegas Capture problem
 

Hi all, hope you can help

I've just purchased a second hand GYHD100 and can't seem to capture the HDV-SD50p footage. I've tried capturing in Vegas - in a 720 25p project - it will capture the 50p footage at 25p (I used 720 25p project settings as I'm thinking it is a HDV codec used in camera).

I also tried capturing into a SD DV Widecreen project (set as progressive) - it captures but again doesn't run at 50p - only 25p

So it appears that Vegas will only capture the 50p footage at 25p or am I doing something wrong (it's probably me). Any help appreciated.

Cheers
Pete

Hi, Peter.

Can you clarify something for me? Are you attempting to run the 50p footage as slow motion in a 25p timeline?

Hi Chad,

Thanks for replying. Yes I am. Your question sounds like you think that I should be capturing to a 50p timelime, which makes perfect sense to me. But, Vegas HD 9, Vegas Pro 7, Premiere 1.51 (they are the NLE's I have) will not allow me to set a project at 50p - only 25p.

Is there another way to capture the 50p and then drop it onto a 25p timeline?

Thanks for your time
Pete

Okay. I just wanted to make sure I knew what you were trying to accomplish before i started spouting off.

First, don't fear that the video is being captured at 25p. If you recorded the video at 50p all 50 frames are there. for some reason the editing software must be displaying the clip properties incorrectly. I'm not a Vegas user so I can't speak to that, but I have shot a lot of 60p for slomo 24p playback. Hopefully I can help a little.

When you shoot at 50p/60p there's metadata in the clip itself that tells the clip how to playback. A captured clip that was shot at 50p is told to play back at 50 frames per second. What you need to do is somehow tell the 50p clip to play back at 25 frames per second.

There are a bunch of different ways to do this. Some cost money (Excalibur, Cineform). Some are free but complicated (avisynth). And some are free and easy but may not give you the results you're looking for.

Programs like Excalibur and avisynth will actually reorganize the metadata in the clip so that it will play back the frames slower. This gives nice results if you're splitting the speed in half like you are. If you don't mind the learning curve you might want to give avisynth a try. It's free, but you may pull a few hairs out as you learn how to use it.

The cheap and dirty way to do it is simply to adjust the speed of the clip in the Vegas timeline down to 50%. Since all 50 frames are present in the video it should play back pretty smoothly because no interpolation or blending needs to be done. I've used this method in both Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro with acceptable results.

I hope that helps a little. If nothing else maybe it will inspire some others to chime in.

Thanks Chad!

That makes perfect sense, I did actually slow a clip down by 50% in Vegas and it did look pretty good, but of course couldn't tell if I was looking at actual frames or interpolated - sounds like they were actual frames. I've just right clicked a clip, clicked properties and the metadata is there - it says 50fps - it just needs telling to display at 50fps by changing the speed. Most useful now I know what I'm doing.

I'll have a look at the programs you mentioned and see if I can justify the cost - it does look pretty good in Vegas though. I'm just messing with some test footage at the moment, finding my way round the camera etc. as it is very different to the V1 I own.

Thanks very much for your help.
Cheers
Pete