Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum
 

Hola Amigos!

I picked up a copy of Sony Movie Studio+DVD Platinum a couple of days ago and have been testing it out since. It handles very well on my system. It comes with a Sony sound effects sampler, some light audio production software, and DVD architect. The WMV-HD codecs are also included, along with another output option listed only "HD 720p" and "1080i." The HDV codecs are in there as well, only 1080i and 720p30. Sadly there is no 720p24 for the HD-100 (darn!) Well, I guess it's only because it's consumer software with a $130.00 price tag. The HDV stream handles really well on the timeline, and although I never thought I would move from Adobe to Vegas, this software has really grown on me. I also thought it was cool that it came with a copy of "HDV: What you need to know." Good reading. The only thing I notice when I re-export as an HDV stream from the software, there is a slight degradation: larger blocks of pixels, but I'm quite sure that it was due to a very dark shot. The software also had no trouble reading my JVC 30k deck, which I thought was cool. Now I only wonder if it will read the BRHD50. I'll just have to treat myself to one to find out :-)

Happy cutting.

Help Needed - Canopus AVIs & Vegas
 

Help Needed - Canopus AVIs & VegasI'm quickly losing my mind here.
I have AVI 5 files, edited on a Canopus Rex system (not by me!!), that I need to make into a DVD using DVDA 3.0
I rendered them out from Vegas (6.0c) as mpegs & ac3s but, when I brought them into DVDA (3.0c) , it said every file had to be re-compressed. When I did this, lip sync was off as well as what appears to be a field ordr problem.
The files are only 9 min. max. each.
I've done this numerous times before and NEVER had to go through this before.
Is this a Canopus (type 1 vs. type 2) AVI file issue? I've got the Canopus DV file converter but have never used it so I'm not sure which settings to choose.
Any help is gratefully appreciated.

Mike

edit: I did a test render using AVI files I created in Vegas so I know this works. It's the Canopus AVIs that are giving me grief :-(

So u were able to do it perfectly in V6c rite? Check your settings in DVDA3. Click on the particular file and u will see the time line in DVDA3 at the bottom right.Do the preview there.. WYSIWYG.. the sound track could have been shifted a little over there..

In case anyone else runs into the same issue, I ended up using the Canopus DV File Converter and converted the Canopus AVI files to Microsoft DV (AVI 2) files. Brought them back into Vegas, rendered out to MPEG-2 & AC3, back into DVDA (where they had to recompressed) and made my DVD.

Mike

if i understood you correctly, there is something seriously wrong with that workflow.

when you import dvd-legal mpeg2 & ac3 files into a dvd authoring application, they should NEVER have to be recompressed into mpeg2 & ac3 again... it ruins the picture quality.

perhaps when you said "recompressed", you were referring to the actual creation of the dvd itself... that process does not recompress the video footage, only the stills.

Disappearing Windows - It Happened Again
 

Somehow I got the docking station to disappear beneath something so it is invisible. First it was the Video Preview. I did a alt-D-1 to bring up a stored Vegas layout. That got my video preview back.

But I still don't have the Media FX. Whenever I open it, it flies down to the bottom of the screen.

What's the magic command (undocumented in Help as far as I can tell) to restore the default editing layout.

Is there a way to rescue these hidden windows.

BTW: Its Vegas 5. Thanks!

-Tom-

To restore EVERY setting back to factory default, hold down CTRL-SHIFT and start Vegas.

You may be able to find your window by changing your screen to a higher resolution, finding the window and dragging it back to the main screen, and then changing it back to your current resolution.

Thanks!
 

All you folks out there make sure you get Excalibur.

I do multi-cam theater work and use the Multi-cam wizard in Excalibur all the time.

Also the Align A/V wizard can save your *ss if you should happen to get the audio out of sync. It happens.

That things in Vegas really sucks... posted a lot of times in suggestion box... no response, maybe in V7 ...

Plus, you can download a script at vastt.com, that puts some nice buttons to call and save "layouts", i use it every time, really nice and it's called Layout icons.

Flickering Sub Titles
 

I made this photo montage thingy in a PAL widescreen setting, did the sub titles in DVDA3. It flickers a lot on my PAL TV.. is there anyway to solve this? I've not tried sub titles on the moving videos yet..anyone has such experience?

Make sure the text color is broadcast safe (235, 235, 235 at most). I could be wrong, but I think the default for DVDA2, at least, may be pure white (255, 255, 255). I make my subtitles a yellow color and they look a lot better. Also, you might want to try a different font to see if it works better for you.

I was having a similar problem and thought I might add that I simply used the print-to-tape function in Windows Movie Maker and it worked flawlessly... 16:9 progressive, too.

Ok, I'll check the broadcast settings. Hope they work better! Thanks.

It could also be the size of the text that's an issue. If parts are 1-pixel tall, that will produce interlace flicker. Antialiasing and "fanciness" (i.e. drop shadow, edge glow, etc.) and increasing size can help.

Small titles should be avoided in any case, because it can be hard to read (your display device may have lower resolution that what you see in studio). Also, small text is prone to chroma crawl (the rainbow stuff on the edges of black and white text is an example).

Additionally, try to avoid serif'd fonts and fine-line fonts such as script/fine lined handwriting fonts.

Rendering to MPG problem
 

I am rendering out a small project that has a company logo splashscreen at the beginning of the segment. Their logo is a round grey circle on a white background, when I render the project to MPG2, the grey is almost completely gone and all I see is the white background of the Logo?
If I render to DV-AVI, everything is fine.
What can I do to fix this? The final project needs to be on DVD.

Thanks

Increase the bit rate?

What does it look like if you take that rendered DV-AVI and then render THAT to MPEG2?

Done! Its pretty cool I can upload it to the Sony's Playstation portable. That way I can show my stuffs to potential cients?!!??


Thanks!

Q: on Vegas / CineForm HDV edit - open to suggestions
 

Applacation:
Write, produce, direct, edit video based content not to exceed 3o minutes
Direct to dvd with high quality informative content.
Limited distribution – in the hundreds
DVH aspect ratio desired. (I know thereis no media, (DVD) available yet.
Professional but not broadcast quality a must.
Content, titles, nice cuts, limited CGI or motion graphics
My thoughts on a production package:
• Capture: Sony HVR-Z1
• Edit: Avid Xpress Pro HD Mojo on authorized dealer configured system (any comments on Promax as a vendor)
Questions
• I want a system that works out of the box with minimal glitches.
• Is the Avid price premium worth it versus Vegas w/ CiniForm, Premier Pro or other?
• I want a PC based platform

Darius, this is the wrong forum to be asking about Avid Express. Having only recently received my updated Avid software, haven't had a chance to compare it just yet. But, Vegas and HDV work very, very well together. Promax is a decent dealer, but I'll recommend the supportive vendors here first, such as B&H, Zotz, etc.

Thanks go to user MarcoB on the Sony forum for providing this fix.
I can verify that it works perfectly :-)
I've added a follow-up comment from him as well.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vegas analyses and uses the Canopus AVIs coming from Rex not correctly. For Vegas them are Upper Field First though actually them are Lower Field First.

I had the same problem several times and Sony Support helped me by telling me how to modify the "Vegas profile.ini" file which is in the Vegas program folder.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Open the file "Vegas profiles.ini" within an editor. Search for this phrase:

"Key2=0, "None", 720, 576, 25.0, 0
Attributes2="Upper First", 1.0925925925, "Undefined", 1"

Modify this one to

"Key2=0, "None", 720, 576, 25.0, 0
Attributes2="Lower First", 1.0925925925, "Undefined", 1"

Save the file anew .

Be sure to have copied the original file with another name first to have a backup!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now when you reopen Vegas it will analyse and use the Canopus AVI files correctly as Lower Field First.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow-up:

The modified ini-file seems to be perfect for any dv stuff because dv must be lower field first and even if Vegas is confused by certain dv files like the Canopus ones it'll be perfect - lower field first.

But if you have a video input which fits 720x576 size and 25 fps but which is NOT dv then it does also change the field order to lower field first which might be not correct then.
So if you import or capture video which is Sony YUV it actually should have upper field first but with this modified ini-field it will be read as lower field first in Vegas.

This means you probably will not have any trouble with that kind of modified ini-file when using dv video. But you must reset the ini-file if you're going to use video which actually is upper field first.
If you have a project running with mixed stuff - both upper and lower field first - the modified ini-file is no help at all.

Update -
First of all thanks for the info. I did figure out a solution, though it's odd I had to do this.

Vegas was outputting my files at 23.976023 fps but the project settings were only doing it at 23.976 (IVTC film). I have no idea why this was happening, but when I set my project settings to 23.976023, everything was good again. Very wierd.

Lame MP3 error ?!?
 

Hello everybody!
When I want to render a video footage out in AVI, if I choose LAME MP3 for AUDIO, I get the message: "An error occured while opening a codec."
So,where is the problem? I have LameMP3.dll in my system but not in Sony Vegas directory. What to do?!?

Make key move cursor forward 25 frames
 

I've tried searching, but the search doesn't seem to work anymore... I went through the keyboard layout, but couldn't find how to change something specific like number of frames, just that I could tell a key to move by a frame.

I want to be able to hit like ctrl-> and have the cursor move 25 farmes forward.

Alt+left/right arrow will move you a single frame at a time, regardless of how deeply you're zoomed. If you're zoomed in deeply enough, just the arrow key alone will do this.

If you wanted to always move a specific number of frames, you could always write a script that moves that many frames and then assign the script to a keypress. As Spot said, the zoom level will control the number of frames the arrow key moves. If you zoom in to the exact right zoom level, you should be able to get 25 frames. The script method would probably be the most precise method, though.

Do a search on "divx xvid mp3", I have a thread around here somewhere about this EXACT topic. Basically, Vegas can't handle it, so best choice is to render out to full res avi (or frameserve), and then use VirtualDub to encode to Divx/Xvid video muxed with MP3 audio -- VDub probably does a better job than Vegas could anyway, and it's pretty easy to use. But search for my old thread, it's got way more info.

VASST Ultimate S 2.0 Vastly Improves Sony Vegas
 

http://www.digitalproducer.com/artic...e.jsp?id=34866

http://www.vasst.com/product.aspx?id...2-f703f5050400

Charlie White says

If you’re using Sony Vegas editing software, there’s a powerful group of tools and scripts that can make your life easier. VASST Ultimate S 2.0 ($149) is an add-on to Vegas 5.0 or 6.0 that can create complex effects with just a simple click of the mouse. It’s also packed with practical editing tools, audio and video effects enhancements, a great Film Look applet, and even a utility for editing multicamera productions. After plugging Ultimate S 2.0 into Vegas 6.0, I went to work, and found myself repeatedly saying, “Ultimate S, where have you been all my life?”

Looks like an amazing tools to have!!!

PAL render 10x longer than NTSC render... normal?
 

I'm rendering a project that is about 1.5 hours long... includes video and some still shots. The video took under 3 hours to render in NTSC format, but i'm reformatting for customers outside of the US and the PAL render is estimated to take over 20 hours. Is this normal??
Thanks all,
matt lewis
www.cystinuria.org

Normalizing, what's the skinny?
 

OK I have finished my project and want to normalize the audio tracks, do I
normalize each track individually or at the project level? It is a simple project, a documentary with 3 audio tracks, Voice over, music and ambiant sound. I have checked out a few tutorials in C Cow etc but they don't get too specific. Am waiting for Spot to release his next DVD, but need this info now, and am not audio savvy at all (release, attack??? sounds like somebody is wrestling!) Any help greatly appreciated.

Would anyone be interested in helping me write this? I'm guessing in would look something like "when right arrow is depressed move cursor right 25 frames" Though I'm not sure how to put that in java...

We agree completely! That's why we've put together special bundles with VASST & Sony that include VASST training and trial versions of Ultimate S & Gearshift with any Vegas purchase.

We're also offering a bundle of VASST training & Ultimate S.

We've posted an interview on our site with Douglas Spotted Eagle that talks about Vegas, Ultimate S & HDV. Check it out http://www.videoguys.com/vegas_spot.html

Gary

You'll need two scripts. For example:
MoveCursorRight.js containing these two lines:

import Sony.Vegas;
Vegas.Cursor = Vegas.Cursor + new Timecode("00:00:00:25");


and MoveCursorLeft.js containing these two lines:

import Sony.Vegas;
Vegas.Cursor = Vegas.Cursor - new Timecode("00:00:00:25");


Then you would need to store those two files in the Script Menu folder. Assigning them to the desired keypresses can now be done by going to the Keyboard tab in Options - Preferences.

sorry look in standard vegas forum

Thanks Edward that works beautifully!!!

I guess the original file is NTSC.
so rendering from NTSC to PAL means changing from 60i to 50i.
vegas tries to cut away 10 half frames every second while also changing the resolution from NTSC standard to PAL.
so i guess its natural that it takes more time.

but I can not comment on why it takes so much longer.

I'm not sure of the exact times but if the ntsc render took about 3 hrs. then the pal definitely could take around 20. It should go faster however if you put the rendered ntsc back on the timeline and render it out so that it's a straight convertion rather than applying effects and also doing the conversion. That should knock the time down some.

Ben Lynn

Fred,

Actually there is a bug in that script. (I know it’s hard to believe there is a bug in just one line of code but that’s all it takes) Edward’s code will only work when the timeline is set to Time & Frames or one of the two 29.97 SMTE settings (Drop or Non-Drop). So it only supports 3 or the 14 timeline formats.

In SMTPE 30 (30 fps, Video) it will only move 24 frames. If you are editing in PAL SMPTE EBU (25 fps, Video) the script will actually advance the cursor 29 frames! Set the timeline to SMTE Film Sync (24fps) or SMPTE Film Sync IVTC (23.976) and the script will jump 31 frames!

In fact it will not work at all if the timeline is set to Time, Seconds, Absolute Frames, Measures & Beats, Feet and Frames (16mm or 35mm). And if the timeline is set to Samples it will move only 7 frames each way.

The correct line of code to advance exactly 25 frames regardless of timeline ruler setting is:

Vegas.Cursor += Timecode.FromFrames(25);

Likewise this line will go back 25 frames:

Vegas.Cursor -= Timecode.FromFrames(25);

~jr