Printing to Tape with Letterbox
 

I have footage shot with the DVX100A in 24pa 16:9 squeeze mode. How can I export this footage to MiniDV tape in letterbox mode? Right now I am only able to export to tape with a squeezed image. Thanks.

Pretty sure you'll need to re-render it as a 4:3 dv file, then print to tape.

Thanks a bunch, I figured it out.

PAL to NTSC conversion
 

What's the best way in Vegas to do the above?
Is it just a matter of setting a NTSC project and importing pal avi files and rendering out to dvd (mpeg2). I expect a longer rendering time and I suppose I will have to select correct de-interlace method as there will be a lot of "field" work.
I won't be able to verify the result as I live in PAL land and don't have a NTSC tv set.
What quality of results should I expect?
Help will be gratefully appreciated.

Mel.

Bob Grant from Australia (I know him & trust his responses) posted the following on the Sony forum a while ago.

***********************
Sure do it all the time.
Just ask Vegas to encode to mpeg-2 using the DVDA NTSC template, maybe adjust the bitrate as you would if doing a PAL DVD.

Render at Best and select Reduce Interlace Flicker for all the media.

Alternatively render to a new PAL AVI and encode from that to NTSC as it'll save you having to add the Reduce Interlace Flicker thing to lots of clips.

You should be able to play the resulting DVD in your existing DVD player if you've got a recent or el cheapo one.
***********************

Hope this helps.

Mike

QuickTime H.264?
 

Is it possible to use with Vegas? Can't get it working.

Don't think so. I saw an article at the VASST site which discussed frameserving the Vegas timeline into Nero for H264 rendering. Might do a search there and the Sony Forum (which is where I recall picking up the reference). Darryl

AVI splitter?
 

Can anybody recommend a method or a program to split full 60-minute captures (which were captured as .AVI's) into multiple (or at least two) smaller files without recompressing or generational loss?

Thanks

As long as they were DV-AVIs, Vegas should be able to do it for you.
Put it on the time line and drop markers at the appropriate points. Double-click in an empty are to highlight a section and select "render loop region only".

VirtualDub will also do this for you. Load the file in, delete the areas you don't want, select "video - direct stream copy" and then "file - save as avi".

Mike

If you render a DV-AVI file in Vegas to another DV-AVI file and you have made NO changes, it will be a straight file copy so there will be NO generational loss.

Now that's strange. I was able to export QT H.264 video from Premiere Pro without a problem after installing the QuickTime 7 preview (the free player, not the Pro version) on my computer. I wonder why it doesn't work in Vegas?

Very interesting, and good to know. At least I can take my HD projects stored in cineform format and make H.264 from Adobe Premier without having to buy some $500 encoder.

Vegas is very picky about codecs. It's really getting to be problematic for me.

Awesome, you guys are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you.

scenalyzer will do it too

Vegas 6.0b Network Rendering
 

I have just started to use Vegas 6.0 ( also have Premiere Pro 1.5.1 and Edius Pro3) I have Aspect HD Demo 3.3 loaded at the moment too. Main reason for Vegas is that it appears to have the best user interface for cropping SD video from HDV. Since this process will result in rendering the whole video I decided to set up network rendering with one of my other PC's. Main PC is AMD 64 X2 4200+ second PC is an AMD XP2500. I have set up both as far as I can tell!!! While watching the status on the second PC, it will render for a few seconds and then fails reporting no project file in the log ( the file is there however when I checked on the host PC). Both PC's show "ready" in status before starting rendering. Network is a Gigabit ethernet. What am I missing?

Ron Evans

updating vegas
 

I'll be getting Vegas 6 in about a few days from now. I currently have Vegas 4 with some work in progress. Would I be able to work with my projects in the new Vegas 6? Can 6 be insalled without uninstalling 4?

Thanks

Sure. Vegas 6 installs in its own folder and doesn't overwrite Vegas 4. I have Vegas 4, 5 and 6 installed.

yes, you can work in V6 with prevorious Vegas project

*if you save project in V6 - from this moment older versions of the program not anderstand this *.veg (V6 anderstand, V4/5 not)

are you sure that it's really the qt h.264 codec? i'm trying to figure out how that could have happened... did you have nero installed already? maybe it's the nero h.264 codec??

That's not easily possible in Vegas. However you can give it a go through the
following method (make sure you try this on a COPY of the file!!!!!).

Go to www.doom9.org
Go to downloads, AVI editing tools, click on show all AVI editing tools
Download Avifrate1.10.

Extract the program from the zip, launch it and open your (copy) AVI file. It
should display the current framerate (25.0). Change it to 24.0 and save the
file.

Now start Vegas and select the NTSC DV 24p template. Change the 23.976
fps (IVTC film) to 24.000 fps (film). Now load the file into Vegas.

You will see once you load the file that the audio part is not as long as the
video part. Un-group the audio track and ctrl + drag it to the end of the video
(in Vegas' default settings it should snap to match exactly). The audio should
now be back in sync with the video.

I didn't have time to confirm this flow, but if memory serves me correctly it
should work this way.

Good luck!

Which *exact* version of Vegas are you using?

To what format are you rendering? The network rendering cannot do anything
to help encode the final output file. It can only help in the cropping part and
effects stuff etc. I'm not sure what happens if you encode to something like
mpeg-2. What exact version of Vegas are you running? Tried a search at the
Sony forums?

Version 6.0b.

Does this also happen when the files are not on a RAID drive? It could also be
that the MJPEG codec and Vegas are not getting along. Are you only seeing
this during preview or also in the final encode?

If other programs do not have a problem with it perhaps you can use those to
transcode the footage to DV first and use that? I know that is a pain in the *ss,
but at least should allow you to move on with the project?

Good luck!

It has happened when the files are not on the raid array, but less frequently. It only shows up in the final render, not on the video preview. It has happened once before with the Huff YUV codec. I think you are right that certain VFW codecs are not getting along with Vegas. But why is it random?

I can't encode to DV cause I'm using HDV here. I have been talking on the Cineform forum about using that codec but I've also been having (unrelated) problems with the quality of CFHD footage rendered straight from Vegas (as opposed to rendered from their HDLink converter, which works fine).

It almost starts to sound like something else might be wrong (a faulty memory
bank perhaps?)... If not then either it is an obscure Vegas bug (I would contact
Sony on this!) or if you are always encoding to the same file format the encoder
might be wrong?

It's never happened when I use source footage in DV or any other codec that Vegas "likes." It's just with these third party ones sometimes frames get dropped. It also is solely an issue with the source material, not the destination format. I also think, though I don't really have any hard evidence of this, that it is worse if the computer is slower. So all I can guess is that if the computer takes too long to render the frame, the next frame is black. I should probably contact Sony indeed.

Rob, I am rendering to DV. I am aware that rendering to MPEG2 would need licenses on all machines according to the instructions that I read in the manual. The render clearly starts but then stops after a few seconds. That's the piece that is puzzling me. I am cropping an SD video from the HDV file. It works very well really simulating a multi camera shoot, and the user interface for the crop is the best of the three NLE's that I have. But the rendering is incredibly slow. From the intermediate CFHD file it is almost 5 times realtime on my AMD dual core 4200+. Premiere (with AspectHD)is almost realtime as is Edius PRo3 from HQ file. I am trying to see how much network rending helps. Rendering is clearly a problem for Vegas one reason I have only used it for audio in the past. If my videos were only 2 min it wouldn't matter but for 2 hours it will take half a day to render. I can see I will be returning to the way I did NLE's in the beginning of just rendering a few minutes at a time!!! Such a pity as the crop user interface is the best of them all. Edius Pro3 has a layout crop interface but no keyframes otherwise it would be my choice for speed and quality.

Ron Evans

Is there a chance that the networked machines do not have the right codec?
Do you need to install something for HDV that is not installed on those machines?

Vegas Movie Studio Platinum
 

Has anyne tried out the new versions of Vegas Movie Studio yet or found any reviews. Specifically I am interested in knowing whether it would be worth paying the extra $50 for the Platinum edition.
I am not editing HDV and don;t care so much about the sound effects etc they throw in but the primary colour correction tools might make it worth while.
Any advice or links appreciated

Cheers
Mark

Beyond that, I believe the Pixelan tool is only available in the Platinum version. Looking at costs, that alone is worth the price difference.

The Acid XMC package is nice if you want to upgrade later. But I think you nailed it, aside from the Pixelan F/X, the color correction is the main difference. Between the two, I think it's worth the $50.

Dan,

Well, "H.264 Encoder" shows up under the list of QuickTime codecs in the Adobe Media Encoder. I kind of doubt the Nero H.264 codec (yes, I have Nero 6.6 installed) would show up, as I would think the system would have to know it is a QuickTime codec before it would appear on the list (and it's not really a QuickTime codec, just a QuickTime compatible codec). Not every codec can appear in the Adobe Media Encoder. Only MPEG, QuickTime, RealMedia, and Windows Media codecs can be accessed.

It's been awhile since I first learned about the Nero H.264 codec, so I don't remember, but I think I would have checked at the time if I could access it in Premiere Pro. I don't think you can. But someone with Premiere Pro and Nero 6.6 installed, without QuickTime 7, would have to confirm.

Peter,

If you do export to the QuickTime H.264 codec from Premiere Pro, make sure you use the deinterlace filter (if you have interlaced footage) for the best quality. Otherwise my videos looked terrible.

One thing I have found is that for some reason the bitrate slider in Adobe Media Encoder is totally inaccurate when encoding to QuickTime files. If my memory servers me correctly I believe it has to be set to around 25 Kb/s to get an approximately 350 Kb/s file.

Semi Urgent PAL > NTSC Project
 

I've done this before and it worked fine (I had to process some live band footage to send to an American producer) but I've only got time for one shot at this, so I don't want to mess it up, as I need to get a DVD of it to some American guys tomorrow.

I've got some footage of them playing taped in PAL DV on a PAL Cam (I'm UK), and obviously they'd want it in a usable format for back home.

Whats the best way of getting vegas to do all this for me? Its only a short set, so rather than export to a different encoder like I usually would, I might just encode straight in vegas to DVD at a very high CBR.

Would I start the project in PAL or NTSC?
What deinterlace settings should i set (bearing in mind I've heard very good things about vegas' 24p encode.. should I use this?)

Its been a while since messing around with NTSC standards, so a quick rundown on what to setup with regards to the project, then the encode would be most appreciated. i presume the 50i > 24p conversion would slow down the audio by 1%, which isn't a problem.. and it'd do this automatically without me having to export audio then reimport it etc?

Cheers!

I'll repeat my reply to Mel in the "PAL to NTSC conversion" thread about 10 posts down. He never replied that it worked for him so hopefully it did.


Bob Grant from Australia (I know him & trust his responses) posted the following on the Sony forum a while ago.

***********************
Sure do it all the time.
Just ask Vegas to encode to mpeg-2 using the DVDA NTSC template, maybe adjust the bitrate as you would if doing a PAL DVD.

Render at Best and select Reduce Interlace Flicker for all the media.

Alternatively render to a new PAL AVI and encode from that to NTSC as it'll save you having to add the Reduce Interlace Flicker thing to lots of clips.

You should be able to play the resulting DVD in your existing DVD player if you've got a recent or el cheapo one.
***********************

Hope this helps.

Mike

See these URL's on how you can do 25 -> 24 fps:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=50279
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=39265
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=2108

Otherwise you can just set Vegas to an NTSC 29.97 (30 fps drop frame) project
and plunk in the PAL footage. Render out to DVD or whatever (in NTSC format)
and it should be okay.

Cheers guys, so leaving my project settings as PAL DV then Blend Frames for the interlace, then just telling it to use an NTSC template will convert it all fine then? The 24p thing isn't so important, just thoght if its easy enough and it'll look better then hey.. why not :)

One thing you should be aware of is that the latest version of Vegas, version 6, does a much better job of frame rate conversion than versions 5 and before did. I would go so far as to say that Vegas 6 even does a better job of PAL/NTSC conversions than do dedicated programs like DVFilm Atlantis.

Pan Scan Aspect Ratio
 

I've just completed a project shot in 16:9 HDV with my FX-1. During the editing, I used pan/scan to zoom in on certain parts of a clip. However, when I rendered to DVD, everything correctly displays in letterbox (on a 4:3 set) except the clip that I pan/scaned. It was stretched to 4:3.

How do I make sure that the material I pan/scan remains in 16:9 format when rendered and transferred to DVD. I am using DVD Archtect to burn the DVD.

Thanks,

-- Keith