burning to VHS straight from NLE, can it be done?
 

My buddy claims you can record to a VHS tape by hooking up the cam to the computer, via firewire, and the the cam to the VHS, via RCA/S Video.

I have Vegas 4, if that matters. Anyone done this? The VCRs I have at my disposal are all rather cheap/old, and none have S-Video in/outs, though they do have RCA. Is there an extra component I'd need? Is it cheap?

Thanks.

Yes this will work as long as your camera supports digital in and
direct analog out (not all do this). It is the same system as using
the camera for a monitor out (to TV or broadcast monitor).

Oh, well, then I forgot mention it's an XL1s. My bad.

The XL1 allow you to do this Josh. Simply plug it in your computer through firewire, then connect your VCR in the XL1 through RCA cables. Put your camera in vcr mode, ask vegas to preview on an external monitor, press record on your VCR, and play the vagas's timeline.

Thanks! I'll try it.

Wasn't there some issues with getting the proper setup when doing this though. As in does the XL-1 video out have a signal at 7.5 IRE? Or do you have to go through a proc-amp?

Sounds like a good question. I suppose you could raise the setup on one of the custom presets the approriate number of notches, if needed (I have no idea). Does anyone know how much to raise it to equal a 7.5 setup? Or do you need to raise it at all? I certainly don't have a proc amp.

Or is there something I can do in Vegas 4 to make it all come out correctly?

Does Vegas 4 have scopes?

View --> Video Scopes

Open up a filter that raises brightness. Raise the brightness until the vectorscope shows 7/8IRE. This is only for analog dubs where 7.5IRE setup isn't being added by your consumer equipment.

You can apply the effect to everything if you add the effect to where the video preview window is (make sure to enable it).

I think I had a whole thread devoted to setup and Vegas. I still don't get it. I'll be able to tell about this setup business if everything looks unnaturally dark on the VHS copy, right?

The thing to remember is anytime DV is going to hit analog you must ask yourself if set up is being applied somewhere. It could be applied through your camera, in your VTR or in your NLE. I honestly don't know if the XL-1 applies it or not, it might be switchable on the analog outputs like the DVX.

Definitely not switchable. . .I do know that.

Hey, guys, thanks! I tried it today, and it works!

It SEEMS the setup is fine, don't need to do anything in the NLE, but that's only according to the TV I watched it on as it was recording. . .could be wrong.

Another thing, and very important: DO NOT SIMPLY PLAY DIRECTLY FROM THE TIMELINE!

You won't get audio this way! With Vegas, you have to "print video to DV tape", without a tape in the camera, of course, record in the VHS machine, and then you'll get sound.

That's correct indeed Josh, thanks for pointing that out. Also if
you where to do a play from the timeline you might drop frames
here and there as well which a print to "tape" should not do.

Ah, and we learn something new every day. One day, it'll all be telepathy.

Although you do always waat to use "print to tape" to get the best finished results, you can send the audio out to your television from the timeline during the editing process. I don't have the program in front of me, but i think you need to go to the preferences section and there are audio options under output tab, or something like that.