Please disregard the above post as I have found the answers I was looking for.
Thanks
CS

Wow I didn't know that. *scratching my head*............How do YOU know that?! How do you know so much in general?! *lol* Stuff like that isn't in the manual.

Virtual Dub/Vegas
 

What video compression should I select in Vitrual Dub for for avi file to be used back in Vegas. Just started using Virtual dub and hve quicly found out the uncompressed RGB avis are huge....

I'd be willing to bet that there is a frame serve plug-in for Virtual Dub. This would create a stub AVI file which Vegas can use. The advantages of uncompressed, without the disk space.

Lines through clips
 

I'm using Vegas 4, my captured clips have many lines through them. Can anyone tell me what it is and how can I capture clips without these lines. I was using premiere and had the same problem when I burnt to dvd. Any suggestions welcome appreciation in advance for any answers

Thanks

WHERE are you seeing the lines? Sounds like you may simply be seeing interlace lines. When you capture standard DV, it is interlaced. When you watch that video on a computer screen, there will be interlace lines present. When you watch that same video on a TV, it will look correct.

remember your computer monitor is PROGRESSIVE.

for your DVD ?? you might want to look at your project properties to see which method you selected (or didn't select) to de-interlace.

if you are rendering to progressive IMO choose BLEND as deinterlace method.

24p MPEG Output Question
 

I've been experimenting with the DVX100A squeeze mode (simulates a 16:9 anamorphic lens output) and the Vegas 24p support. Here's what's happening:

--24p (2:3, not 2:3:3:2) squeeze mode record
--bring into Vegas with properties=24p widescreen (23.976fps)
--render as .mpg DVD Architect 24p widescreen (23.976, no pulldown)

Results are fine EXCEPT for a 3x3 matrix of little squares that goes flittering around the screen -- looks like a rubic's cube. This is true viewing the .mpg in wmp or on 3rd party software dvd decoders. I haven't burned to dvd yet.

I have a fully registered copy of Vegas and MainConcept, so this shouldn't be some sort of demo flag or something. I've used Vegas to output avi only in the past (which I have burned to dvd just fine) and when I use the regular NTSC DVD output setting to render I don't get the rubic's cube. Is this some sort of marker for DVD Architect? Thanks!

OT: Chroma Key Materials, Colors and Size
 

This one's for Chroma Key veterans....

I am looking for recommendations regarding Chroma Key materials - specifically regarding materials, size and color:

Material - Which do you recommend when choosing among (i) paper, (ii) paint, (iii) non-foam cloth, and (iv) foam-backed cloth.

Size - How big of an area is adequate for a full body shot, for example. (I have a guess but I'm trying to get it right on the first setup.)

Color - Blue, Green or Orange?

Your thoughts, experience and recommendations are appreciated!

Thanks,
RL

Optimum ram for XP
 

Anyone know what the optimum amount of ram for windows xp is? It seems to me that the last I read was 512mb after which there was no appreciable performance gain.

No, you can keep going for a while. The cutoff is probably closer to 2Gb then 512MB. I'm going to try to dig up the exact specs on what XP Home vs. XP Pro vs. Server 2003 will make use of. I do know that XP Home won't take advantage of multi-processors, and XP Pro only makes use of 2 processors, and Server can do up to 4 for some versions, and more for others.

I don't recall there being any limitations in the OS about RAM amount. Usually the limiting factor is your motherboard.

Here are two sites I found... suggests the same, that Windows can take more, but has diminishing returns after 2Gb, unless you do some special configurations...

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxMoreThan2GB.htm

http://www.rsinc.com/services/techtip.asp?ttid=3346

In other words, you can load up on RAM as much as your wallet and your motherboard allows!

The most important consideration is the applications you run, not the OS. If your application, particularly video applications, can grab 2Gb or more, then it will. If your work is better because of it, good. But the fact that XP may run great with 256Mb wouldn't be of any value.

What are the Benefits of Using a Dedicated Drive
 

My system has two 120GB drives set up in RAID 0, a P4 3.0GHz processor, and 1 GB of SDRAM. I know video takes up lots of space, but 240GB is more than enough room for what I am doing. So other than giving me additional storage space, what are the benefits of a dedicated hard drive for storing my video files?

Eric

1 - System drive doesn't get confused .. just sits there doing what it should, organise your system!

2 - Housekeeping. You know where things are . .

3 - I use 2 video drives. Drive1 for capture and other related media needed for project. Drive2 Render to new track and other interim files, tests and messy work . . we all do it! Oh, I've also got a bank of external firewire drives I use as "extra" real estate. In total for the f/ws? .. 340gbs . . yeah it soon builds up. As the prices of these drives has plummetted over the past 2 years, not giving yourself this as "another" option is really sailing close to the wind in the possibility of a total melt down or crash . think about it!?!?

4 - Space to "move" stuff about.

5 - Backups of files you want to place somewhere while you clean the disc you want . . er .. clean. Makes defrag a sinch!

There are other reasons . . Go ahead it makes sense all around,

Grazie

The general answer is that you want to maintain the video drive for ONLY video access. Some people even go so far as to having a third drive for audio resources.

To give an example, let's say that your OS does something that requires retrieving a program or something from the swap file. In that case, your main drive would be hit. If your video is also on that drive, the timely retrieval of the video data *may* be affected.

So, it's more of a "safety" issue to help prevent glitches when capturing or printing to tape. Is it an absolute requirement? No.

F11 - very useful!
 

I hope everyone reading this board have found the F11 key in Vegas 4 - not forgetting shift-F11 and ctrl-F11.
If not, you have something to look forward to.

I'm working on a three-page visual "keyboard & mouse gesture quick-reference". Should be ready in a couple of days.
With this I think anyone can be up and running with Vegas in a matter of minutes. The official manual is not great.

-- UPDATE Feb 4th
The Quick Reference is now online at
http://www.modernafilmer.se/se/vegas_keys.pdf

/magnus

A shortcut key 6 page reference file already exists and was downloadable from RSVP.ca. I'm not sure of the exact link but I believe it is still available at their site. It's roughly 5 meg in size.

Thanks for the info. Guess I will put in another drive.

Eric

Or you can get the Vegas keyboard that includes the quick reference right on the keys. I've learned many more keys since I got it.

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel : A shortcut key 6 page reference file already exists and was downloadable from RSVP.ca. I'm not sure of the exact link but I believe it is still available at their site. It's roughly 5 meg in size. -->>>

The link is
http://www.rsvp.ca/rsvp2002/category_info.cfm?sc=14
but....

"SORRY !! You Guessed it !! We were asked to STOP total support for this fine line of software ...Including these very helpful Keyboard Commands."

they are offline...

/magnus

In addition to the manual, keyboard shortcuts are listed in Vegas help. However, it should be interesting to see what Magnus is coming up with.

FilmLook Plugin Version 2.0a(b3) - Directory Not Found FIXED
 

The next version of the FilmLook Plugin is now available at http://www.jetdv.com/scripts/RC3_VegasFilmLooks.exe

This version should eliminate the "Directory not found" error.

FX equally spread throughout the whole event
 

Hi,


Let'c say I have a 9sec event and I want to apply any given FX to it. Everytime I do that it either applies the fx over a period of time in the event (kinda fade in)or it applies it to the whole timeline.

Obviously I would like my FX to be fully applied to the event , now somebody suggested me that I uncheck the "sync event" button in the FX properties and it kinda works 50% of the time. Since then it would not do it overtime but it will (50%) apply it to the whole timeline

Any ideas on how to correct this behavior

Thanks a bunch

Phil

Make sure you are on the FIRST keyframe when you set the effect. If you are in the middle of the clip, it will automatically add a keyframe at that point giving you your applies the fx over a period of time in the event (kinda fade in).

If you apply the effect to the track header, you will get your or it applies it to the whole timeline.

I recommend leaving "sync cursor" turned OFF unless you need it on for some specific purpose. When off, you click click to various places on the timeline and it will not take you off the first keyframe. This allows you to adjust the first keyframe while viewing some other area of the clip.

You may also want to look at the issue of my newsletter that discusses "Scope of Events" http://www.jetdv.com/tts

Vegas can't find Canon ZR65MC
 

I decided to get a ZR65MC here at work instead of putting hours on my GL1/XL1s heads for free.

I got another license for VV 4.0, and it won't see the camera.

I've installed the drivers from Canon's website, but it still won't see it.

The one difference is that this camera is USB instead of firewire.
I can hook my MP3 player to the box, so it's not a bad USB controller etc.

Any ideas?

XP Home, on a P4 2.6 hyperthread, 512 PC3500, Seagate 7200 spin.

The BEST idea I have is return the camera and get one that will work with Firewire. If you want to use DV-AVI (from a MiniDV tape) then firewire is definitely the preferred method.

Have you tried to tell Vegas to look for analog capture devices
instead of digital DV devices? It might see it as analog. If not,
then the device is probably not following a lot of standards.

Do these lines only occur when there is movement (by either
the camera or something in frame)?

I'd say this is happening in the mpeg encoding engine. Actually
WMP cannot decode MPEG2 on it's own. It is using an mpeg2
engine you have installed on your system that came with
something else (usually software DVD players). Most software
based DVD players use a variaty of techniques to "enhance"
the signal. Are you sure you are outputting to a progressive
mpeg and not interlaced (yes I nkow 24p shoud be a progressive,
but check).

Also I've had some weird things in the past if not all settings
in Vegas are the same (ie, project settings, footage properties
and output settings). I would suggest you try to view the DVD
on a TV and see how it looks there.

Which DVD player have you installed (last)? To what bitrate
are you encoding? constant or variable bitrate?

thanks Edward/Rob
 

Any specific directions to accomplish this Rob?

I tried to get budget approval to buy a used GL1, but it got shot down (some people just don't understand this stuff =).

Have you looked under the Video menu in the Vegas Capture
utility? It should be listed there I think (not sure). Otherwise
check the preferences in that utility. Good luck.

IMO, you can try for days to get this to work - probably with sub-standard results - or you can find a means of capturing correctly via firewire with all of the benefits of firewire such as batch capturing, scene detection, full transport control...

I have to agree with Edward here. That is definitely the best way
to go!

I don't have any experience with this at all, but since no-one
responded I'm chiming in here. I've read quite a lot about
chroma keying and everybody seems to agree that green will
be the best colo(u)r to use with DV (due to the color space
compression that is going on).

The further the distance between the person and the screen
(for spill suppression) the larger the screen needs to be.

The issues you are referring to was in Windows 98 I believe.
Where more than 512 mb would not yield results. XP (or Win2000)
should not have these "issues". Ofcourse, if no program is using
that amount of memory (or not combined) it will not be used
either.

Maybe a better question is WHY you want that much RAM?

In Vegas, you will not find more RAM helping significantly when it comes to standard editing and rendering. Where RAM can help is with RAM previews, running multiple applications, running multiple instances of Vegas...

OK, I'm a dork......
 

I just took it back to exchange for something else and realized that they didn't provide a firewire cable as part of the standard package.

There was another hidden area on the camera for firewire and S-video outputs.

I'm capturing video now with no issues.
Since this is going to be used for corporate training and doesn't need to be "pretty", I'll continue with what I've got and assess it from there.

Thanks for the info guys, it's been many years since I've had my hands on a consumer level camera. Next time I'll also read the manual first <;~).

I'll report back on how it works after i put it on DVD.

Thanks again, I appreciate the quick responses !!!!

Yea... We have FIREWIRE!

Would be interesting to see what you are producing there
Magnus. Thanks for the effort!

Oh for everybody that is wondering, the different F11 keys
quickly hide (or display) certain aspects/windows of the user
interface. Very handy indeed!