I haven't used Quicktime on a PC, only the Mac. But assuming that it's basically the same... Quicktime doesn't understand non-square pixels it seems. Your widescreen DV is still 720x480, but your NLE software or a 16:9 monitor knows that it has to stretch the pixels horizontally into the correct proportion.

But on a computer monitor (or any other square pixel device) Quicktime will just display 720x480 pixels. In fact, it isn't even 4:3 - that would be 640x480. AFAIK, if you want to create a widescreen Quicktime file you will need to render it in the proper aspect ratio for square pixels, and that would be 854x480. I can't tell you how to do this in Vegas, but I assume it would be somewhere in the Quicktime export options.

This is a frequent occurrence. When you have trouble burning at a high speed dropping down often fixes the problem. It could also be a media problem. Some DVD blanks just don't work at higher speeds even though they are rated as such.

Good luck.

Dennis

Thanks, I tried puting 854/480 into my project settings as well as making sure that ratio was in the render settings and still I cannot make a widescreen MOV file.

Any ideas from anyone else?

Good stuff Ed

Thanks

Also make sure that if you have "Microsoft Search" in your services
(under administrative tools) that is disabled as well.

Ah, that makes more sense. Heh.

I may sound naive but depending on my limited trials on vegas rpojects, if your original file is a 16:9, the pixel aspect ratio at the project properties should be 1.0926 for PAL and 0.90 for NTSC.

Greg: the project settings should be widescreen 16:9 in PAL or
NTSC. Don't change that!

When exporting QuickTime go to custom and then video tab.
Make sure frame size is set to custom frame size and set the
vertical to normal (which will be 480 pixels for NTSC or 576 for
PAL) or a lower value (which you usually want if you want to
put it up on the web!), usually 50%.

Then use then multiply the horizontal resolution (720 for both
PAL & NTSC) with the pixel aspect ratio number in the project
settings (which is 1.2121 for NTSC and 1.4568 for PAL 16:9).

This should be either 872 (NTSC) or 1048 (PAL). If you are using
a lower resolution take the same percentage out of the horizontal
resolution as well (usually again 50%).

Make sure the pixel aspect ratio on this screen is set to 1.0

This should get you a widescreen movie.

CPU speed is the primary thing behind the preview window speed
(if you are using DV)

video compression question
 

hi.

i have a 2:30 minute clip which i edited on vegas and rendered to a 575MB PAL DV avi file.

i want to compress this file to a video file of no more than 8MB. so that it can be more or less easily e-mailed.

what would be the compression method and/or file format which produces the best video and audio quality and that can be viewed on the standered windows media player?


thanks.

Rob,

Thank you very much. I have made a widescreen mov file now but the only problem is that the size is DOUBLE what the orignal AVI was. The original AVI is only 500MB but the MOV file is over 1 GB !

I have the quality setting in the render tab set to 50% so I have no idea why the file size actually increases when I render to a mov.

Any ideas?

Procoder vs. P-coder express
 

The difference in price is obvioius, but beyond that what kind of performance can I expect from Procoder Express? Will it produce top qualtity MPEG2 files similar to it's big brother or is this simply a super watered down consumer version? I am only interested in encoding for DVD, will express suffice or do I need to sink the 500 bucks to buy the real thing?

Vegas for cartoon animations
 

I wonder if anyone is using Vegas for cartoon animations?

If so, would it be possible to post links to your work so I can see what is achievable? Also, I'd welcome any guidance on what other tools you use in conjunction with Vegas to produce cartoons.

I've been asked to produce some short, simple animated sequences. I know Vegas is not the ideal tool but it's a) all I have, b) what I know best and c) all I can afford! Of course I have various graphics apps, but not anything like After Effects so I'm stuck with making the most of what I have.

Any experiences to share?

Ian . . .

There's an article in one of my newsletters that talks about turning video into something that looks like an animation.

Have you tried .wmv format? I haven't had the greatest of results with .wmv directly rendered in Vegas (could be pilot error) but when I frameserve out to Procoder Express the resulting .wmv looks good and e-mails well and plays fine in WMP (or on the web).

I think 575 MB to 8 MB is going to be difficult with any format. That's over a 70:1 compression! Could you possibly just burn the AVI to a CD as a data disk and mail it to the recipient?

Good luck.

Dennis

I thought the same but I recently got a 311MB file down to 3.3MB with .wmv (at 160x120). Of course if Adi wants to keep his original video full-size then your suggestion would indeed be a better way to go.

What bit rate did it turn out to be and what did it look like?

Good luck.

Dennis

Usually I do around 232 but this one was actually 116. With regard to how it looked, the client was extremely happy with it as they'd previously had someone else do it for them and weren't happy with the quality. It was a real balancing act between the various WM9 parameters, though.

As I mentioned, when I did it in Vegas it looked as bad as I'd imagined it would but for some reason in Procoder it worked and looked way better. I also did a Quicktime for them but I wasn't able to get it below 4MB and still have satisfactory quality.

Tony

theyre exactly the same apart from Quicktime and WMV delivery

QuickTime like AVI are container formats. You need to select a
codec (the right one) to compress your footage with. Sounds like
you selected a not so good codec. Best one to work with is the
Sorenson codec or MPEG4. Also if filesize is important I would
definitely lower the resolution by 50% and perhaps the framerate
to 15 fps etc.

Do some experimenation with bitrates and whatnot (after you
set the correct codec!)

So the quality of an MPEG2 for DVD authoring would be the same as one created with Procoder 2.0? This seems too good to be true.

OT Boris Red help
 

Hi all,


Anybody knows a good forum on Boris Red. Boris's conference type of forum is pretty much cr*p :)


Thanks

Phil

Video done in Vegas
 

This was edited in vegas (special effects in After Effects though...) http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=38978

.wmv vs .wma - What's the difference?
 

What is the difference between wmv and wma files? Why would I use one over the other?

Okay forget it, found the answer:

.wmv - windows media video, competes with quicktime
.wma - windows media audio, competes with .mp3

.wmv is a video file, whereas .wma is an audio file.

EDIT : and thus the problems of posting at the same time, are discovered! ;-D

thanks for your reply anyway

yes its identical as it uses the same codec.
Its the codec that gives it that quality..

the canopus codec IS a little softer, but it does offer a nicer rounded contour.. hard to describe, but colour accuracy is a lil more pronounced.

Canopus have a hardware device which connects through USB and encodes mpg1 and mpg2 in realtime. Saves alot of time and does a nice job
http://www.canopus-aust.com/AU/products/MPEGPRO_EMR/pm_MPEGPRO_EMR.asp


The main concept codec is also a very good one (standard with vegas) i also find that its alot faster than procoder. the results arent all that noticable until you get to the lower end of the bandwidth, which by that time Procoder beats it quite easily.
I wouldnt encode anyhin less than 4200CBR anyway..

im still curious as to why people use boris..

i mean i bought boris red for 3grand hre in aus as a standalone, and i cant see what it can do that Vegas and a myriad of other apps can do...

I mean Bluff Titler, is easier and faster to use as a titler.. as is titlemotin pro... Vegas does excellent keying as does Edius Pro3, Particle Illusion does awsome particle effects, Xara 3d, also does some really nice static titles, Spicemaster does some really awesome displacements and filters, After effects.. well its after effects, what more needs to be said?

Combined, theyre alot easier to use, faster to render, and its a hellofalot cheaper..

one reason i didnt like Boris was the interface.. i couldnt flow with it for some reason.. could be me.. but for everything i do, Boris was just a waste of money.. :( Lucky that i found a buyer for it, but Im still to see something boris can do that any of the mentioned apps ive listed cant.. could be me.. i might be blind..

Hi Peter.


Yeah the interface is a bit clunky but so far just by doing the tutorials I found the program to surpass Vegas when it comes to create dazzling titles.

Mind you I had it cheap.... well free. One of my buddy switched career and was doing computer designs and happen to have a copy. He just gave it to me so my expectations weren't as high as yours.

Reading threads and reviews I quickly realise that there are a lot of programs out there who do exactly the same things ,you just pick one blindly and chances are you will end up being able to accomplish the same things with the same results. It boils down to personnal choices and preferences I guess.

Phil

thanks for the replies.

my first attempt was to create an mpeg. i managed to get it down to the desired size, but then my client replied emailing me a wmv file of about the same duration (2:40 minutes). he was saying that he doesn't understand why the wmv file he sent me, being about the same length and size, looks and sounds better. i took a look and told him that he's absolutely right and that i'll make him a new and better compressed file.

so is wmv the way to go? and Tony, if i understand what you're saying, i shouldn't be creating the compressed file in vegas. right? i just take the .avi PAL DV file (575MB) made in vegas and then use other software (procoder, quicktime?) to bring it down to 7-8 MB?

(i might need a little help later with the settings and parameters)

adi

It's not necessarily the case that you can't get equally good results in Vegas. I was in a hurry and just found that the default settings in Vegas didn't produce as good a result as those in Procoder so I used the Procoder settings as my base to juggle its parameters until I got what I wanted.

Given a bit more time it's entirely possible that similar results could be produced in the Vegas .wmv implementation. You might try that first since it would save you an extra rendering step or a frameserving step and the purchase of additional software.

Tony

there are a lot of major (to me) diff between the two...

the major difference is pce (procoder express) does not have master quality encoding option, which to me is the only reason to use procoder

pce also has no way of saving settings for future encodes, like changing frame rates, combining avi and mpeg encodes n so forth

pro coder also has a lot of little things that add to its value, best place to get a clear concise list is call canopus or visit their forum...

Is Vegas the best way to go Tape 2 tape?
 

So i'm going to make a tape dub and wanted to know if Vegas is the best way to do that ? I have 2 Dv cameras and wondered if that was the easiest?

If i use 2 Dv's, what are the steps neccesary to make it record?



Thanks for the input

>Connect the cams via firewire.

>Put both into VTR mode.

>Press play on the source.

>Press record on the other.

Gary

As Gary said, bypass the computer altogether. You don't NEED to go through the computer when the cameras can talk to each other just fine.

thanks;

its nice when technology is easy and simple to use.

Hopefully DVD architect will be there soon!

>Hopefully DVD architect will be there soon!<

Be where?

Gary

Vol 2 Issue 9 (Oct 04) for anyone else that's interested.

Thanks Edward. It's not exactly what I'm after but I can think of a few other uses for that technique.

Actually, what I'm doing is more like using "digital puppets" for a kind of hybrid stop motion/cut out animation. Each character is sliced up (in Photoshop) into limbs, torso, head etc then the various parts are moved around and keyframed in Vegas to give the appearance of fluid motion.

As I mentioned before, I know there are more appropriate packages for animation (After Effects, even Flash is now widely used) but Vegas is all I got! I'm having some good success with my trials but at the moment the majority of the pre-production effort is going into the artwork.

Thanks again for your great newsletters.

adi, microsoft offers free downloads of their wmv encoder, if you want to take a look at some other alternatives... i think that they should all be pretty similar, tho, if you use the same encoder settings... one thing to look for is two-pass encoding, it makes a big difference, also use vbr to save a bit on the file size.