My guess would be this is a problem in your Windows Media
stuff. I'd suggest trying to (re)install the latest Windows Media
Player from Microsoft and reinstalling Vegas. See what that does.
Sounds like something is buggy in your installation.

How do you add Links in Vegas?

When creating a mask in photoshop what dimensions should I start with...the standard 720x480? Also what do I do create an all white/black image to be used as the mask...or do I actually have to create an alpha channel? How about animating a mask like this?

The mask only needs to be black and white. If you make it 655x480, it will fill the screen correctly. However, If you are going to be moving it around, you may want it larger to make sure you cover the edges at all times. Use Pan/Crop to move and size it.

Put the timeline cursor at the proper location and press "C"

That will create a "Command Marker" which can place commands in a WMV file.

Square pixel (i.e. computer images) that are 654X480 or 720X534 in dimensions will look the same in Vegas (no stretching or stuff cropped off). That's because DV pixels are rectangular, not square.

Aw, but I wanna . . .

For future segments I'll make sure my head is still (I've got a kids basketball hoop on an extendable pole which I thought I could jam my head into, although I think my wife would more unnerved at the sight of that than me wearing her lipstick).

Unfortunately, I had already shot a load of footage which was originally going to be used as a straight talking head PinP until we came up with the action man idea. As I have started down the road with the original footage I kinda didn't want to have to reshoot it all again as I would then have to re-edit the already completed segments.

However, your advice is sound!

I'll take a look at some of the solutions you mentioned but I don't really have the budget right now . . . maybe later in the year.

I've heard it's best to create the graphic at 720x534 then resize back to 720x480 before importing. Thats for graphics not masks though. I probably would have to create the graphic much larger than 720x534 to accomidate any motion I want to add with key-frames.

So I *don't* have to create an alpha channel- just a simple black and white image and Vegas can use that information (black=mask, white=no mask).

Liteon Ldw-811s
 

Does Vegas support the LITEON LDW-811S drive? I know it is not on the list of supported drives, but I am hoping it still will work.

I'm not sure, but you can try out the demo of DVD Architect to
see if it works?

fading audio
 

I'm sorry, but I just got vegas, got some video up there and have added separate audio, but cannot seem to figure out how to fade the audio independently (before the end of the song) Do I have to do it in Acid or Sonor ( I have them )
thanks for any help,

Dave

That's very easy and is done in the same way on the video track.
At the end and beginning of an event (whether it's video or audio)
you can see a small triangle in the upper corner. If you hover
your mouse over it, it will turn into a triangle with two straight
edges and one round. It also has a double sided arrow and
displays a text regarding the gain (audio) or opacity (video).

Now hold the left mouse button and drag it either left (end of
the event) or right (beginning of the vent) to fade out/in.

An event is a single media item in a track. If you have multiple
files (scenes for example) on a track you have multiple events
(one for each). Audio and video are seperate events (entities)
in Vegas.

If you need to fade in/out during the event, you have two options.
You can either split the event at the cursor position (with the S
key. If you only want to split one track instead of all, just select
the event you want to split [by clicking on it] and then hit the
S key. If you moved the position bar you can get it back without
losing the event selection by using the cursor keys). Once the
event is split you have two triangles on either side of the split
and you can just follow the example above.

The second way is to add envelopes (with key frames). Right
click on the track (can be audio or video) OUTSIDE any events.
Now go down the "Insert/Remove envelope" menu and select
"Volume" (Shift+V) for audio tracks and "Fade To Color" for
video tracks. A line will be added in the middle of the track
and you can right click on any part of the line and choose
"Add Point". If you make two you can drag one of them down
to change the opacity/volume from that point on. You can also
drag points to the left or right to change when the change
begins or ends, or you can set a specific value by choosing "Set To"

Thanks Rob, That was extremely easy, but I sure couldn't get that out of the manual.
Dave

ASR [ Attack, Sustain, Release ] - Page 121 Manual "Using Audio Event Envelopes"

The Triangle Thingy - page 122 Manual "Setting An Event's Fade in and Out"


Loads of stuff there . .

Grazie

I only have 99 pages in my manual

Dave