DVD Arch 2 commentary button
 

Hey everyone I was able to figure out how to add a second audio track in DVD Architect 2.0 easily enough. And when you use the audio button on the DVD remote you can jump to that track. But I want to create a button in the menu so that people know the commentary track exists and can toggle it on or off from there.

How do I do that?

Thanks

Lock a layer
 

So... can we go about locking a layer? So that you can't accidentally move or change anything?

You can lock EVENTS by right-clicking and choosing Lock.
Excalibur lets you lock mutiple events at once.

You can also access lock/unlock from the Project Media detail view.

Gary

Either create two seperate buttons, one set to audio 1 and one set to audio 2 In Button Properties>Action>Set Audio Stream.

Or

Create an option menu that lets the viewer choose which audio to play without immediately starting playback.

Create three empty buttons on a menu page.
Name them : Normal Audio (or whatever), Alternate Audio, and Play.

Normal Audio Button Action Properties:
Command =Link
Destination = the menu page it's on
Destination Button = Play
Audio Stream = 1

Set Alternate Audio Button the same except the audio stream

When you activate either button, the highlight will move to the Play button, and the next Enter command from the remote will play the program with the audio chosen.

BTW, this is covered on my DVD Authoring with DVD Architect instructional DVD.

Gary

scenalzerlive, where are the audio tracks?
 

I've downloaded the trial version of slive to make sure of compatibility with my system as they suggest. What I'm trying to do is pick up the audio of my wireless mic on the groom, on other software I cannot hear it. The only thing I can find about the audio on the trial version is under view, and then options I can choose to save the second stereo to a wav file and the first to avi with video. I captured it this way after changing these settings, but I still don't hear the audio, there are no audio tracks on the screen below the video, and I cannot find any seperate wav files on my computer for this anywhere. I am hoping this is only because it is the trial version, but could anyone tell me if the registered version is different? Are the audio tracks visible? If I purchase this how do I go about finding this seperate wav file and then placing it into my current project in vegas? Please, any detailed info would help so much, I have spent so much time trying to get this audio, I'm losing my mind.
Thanks Lisa

Yes, you want to turn on the option to write other audio channel to separate WAV file. When you capture, this will create TWO files: an AVI file and a WAV file.

Now in your NLE, drag the AVI file to the timeline. This will give you the Video and stereo 1 on the timeline. Now drag the separate WAV file to the timeline. This will give you Stereo 2 on the timeline. Keep the WAV file and AVI file aligned and they will stay in sync. (In fact, you *might* want to group them after both are on the timeline.)

still need help
 

Edward, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. I am still not having any luck though. I guess what I first need to know is if the registered version is completely different from this trial, because in the trial there are no audio tracks displayed and the only timeline at the bottom is very different from any other software I've used. I clicked the show avi files and there are now little boxes saying these are avi files, click and drag , but there is nowhere to drag them to. Also I see nothing that says anything about wav files. Am I wasting my time on this trial, or is it possible to actually do something here? There wasn't even any timeline at all until I clicked show film strip one line under view, but this isn't a workable timeline. No deleting arrows or movability. Where should the wav file be located, and shouldn't there be audio tracks shown? Thanks again. By NLE do you mean non linear editing? And then how do I get this to my other software?
thanks again, !!!!!! Lisa

By NLE I mean VEGAS. The WAV files will show up in the Explorer window. They'll be in the same folder as the AVI files.

For both Vegas and Scenalyzer, the demos are the same as the real versions.

I use Scenalyzer to capture and Vegas to edit frequently with this type of tape so I know it works.

Thank You!
 

Thank you, Thank you. I got it. I can't use the trial version to fill in my project already captured through Vegas because of the visual restrictons on the images, and I can't try and dub the audio to the project, but I'll just recapture the ceremony through slive with the registered version and stick it in.
Hope all of this helps anyone else also. The files in explorer have different emblems next to them, put your cursor over them and they will tell you if it is audio or video. It didn't pull up this way in the explorer window, but it did under file, then media, then I clicked on my scenalyzer folder and it pulled up both the audio and video files together.
Thanks again, Lisa

I can see the actual file extension in the Vegas Explorer window. Therefore it's very easy to tell which is the AVI and which is the WAV. However, that's a setting change I made in WINDOWS (cause I HATE not being able to see extensions). Just turn your extensions back on and you shouldn't have any further problems determining which is which.

registering scenalyzer
 

Edward, I purchased the reg. version of scenalyzer and have received the key. Had to download to a cd from email, and upload to pc I use for editing. Under help the registration just says to copy the key and paste it in the clipboard. Again I am having no luck. It won't let me copy anywhere onto slive. I see nothing under view about a clipboard, do they just mean the track where the video is? It won't let me paste here or at the film strip at the bottom, or anywhere else. No ph # for slive, but have sent email. Any Ideas?
Thanks
Lisa

You need to copy the text from the e-mail to a text file and also take that to the editing computer. On the editing computer, open the text file and copy the the serial number to the clipboard (i.e. press CTRL-C)

Now open Scenalyzer, go to the registration screen, and paste from the clipboard (i.e. press CTRL-V)

You should be done.

I wouldn't call it a limitation. It's that way by design. Sony owns a lot of content. If Vegas had an AC3 decoder it would be almost trivial to rip DVDs and pirate them. Sony wouldn't want to do that. Hence the AC3 decoder isn't in Vegas.

Good luck.

Dennis

Instant Vegas is also a good book for beginners.

Good luck.

Dennis

Thanks for letting us know, Edward.

Good luck.

Dennis

Thanks Edward! As always, another great newsletter. And thanks for explaining the "Kids in the Picture" effect.

DVDA 3.0b Available Now
 

Notable fixes mentioned on the release notes are:

The Extras folder file size limit has been changed from 1GB to 2GB.

A bug has been fixed that could prevent chapter markers from working with multiangle video titles.

A bug has been fixed that could cause subtitles to be displayed for the duration of a video event.

Dave

Lisa,

If you ever need to just edit audio, Vegas is very capable. Add in the Sony noise reduction plugin, and it's a very effective solution for archiving an old record collection. We're presently archiving several hundred albums from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. In addition, we've been able to clean up old-time radio programs. We are working on over 260 Gb of such programs.

I'm a fan of most things old (particularly things in public domain), and Vegas is a great way to save these collections.

Brad

Vegas 6 Audio Monitoring
 

Going to Vegas 6 from my Liquid and Avid environments. I was wondering how the external audio monitoring is handled. If I preview out to and external CRT, will the audio be in sync or is there a delay. My Avid setup has issues with this and was just wondering how Vegas handles audio synching with an external monitor. Thanks.

The audio should be in sync. For standard preview, video is sent via firewire while audio goes through the computer's speakers. If they are off, you can always fine-tune it in Options - Preferences. However, I've never had a need to do so. The default settings have worked on all machines I've seen.

Thanks Ed. Appreciate the quick reply.

How to do a transparent background in photoshop
 

Hi.

If I'm in photoshop, and I want an object to have no background, how do I accomplish this?

I want to bring something from photoshop into Vegas, without any background around the object.

I thought it was something simple like selecting transparent background, then saving as a .png or something, but I've tried this without success. Thanks.

In photoshop, use the magic wand or the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the stuff around the object. Read the help if necessary.
You may want to feather the edge of the stuff you cut out. Right-click the selection and feather it before deleting stuff. This can smooth out the edges.

Flatten everything (merge layers or something) and save a copy as a photoshop (.psd) file. You may want to scale things down, because Vegas can be really slow with large images.

A png file is nice beacause it is small and supports the alpha channel, allowing many non Adobe apps to allow the graphics layer to appear with no background. I'm not sure how Vegas handles this but as Glen said, save your artwork as a psd file. BUT! Don't flatten everything. If you do, you will include the background or white layer and you'll be back to your logo with an all white background. Import the psd and if the option exists to select the layer to import, do so.

The other way is to have no filled background in your PSD file ... just "layer 1" for example with just your art.

Then key out the alpha channel in Vegas if you can.

If the alpha channel does not appear to be working after you bring the image into Vegas, right-click the image and choose properties - now pick the proper alpha-channel option.

Sony Vegas 6.0b and Excalibur 3.0 problem
 

I've been using Vegas 5.0 and Excalibur 3.0 for quite sometime with not many problems. But I upgraded to Sony 6.0 and did not uprade Excaibur to 4.0, and now I'm having audio sync problems. The first phase of syncing the tracks work fine. After I find the flash point and sync 1s and 2s together everything looks and sounds fine. As soon as I run the Excalibur wizard after marking all the camera points (45 of them) it finishes fine. But when I play the video, the audio is out of sync by a couple of seconds. Before I ran the final wizard, they were perfect. This has happened on the last 3 videos I have done. What causes this? Is it because I need to go to Exaclibur 4.0??
Thanks, Dennis

Just wanted to specifically say that Vegas directly supports Photoshop image files, even when they're multilayered. So if it's transparent in the BG, it will show up that way on the Vegas timeline. No need to key out channels or anything.

DJ

I did the PSD thing, and it worked great. Thanks to whoever suggested that.

I might have been too elaborate. I copied the background layer (that was where the object was), hid the original background, and took out everything around the object on the background copy. Imported the PSD into Vegas. Anyway, it works, so thanks.

Josh,

A lot of good "photoshop for dummies" type of books out there. Might help some. (no, no insult implied... I own one)

Firewire capture problems
 

I just can't seem to get get the capture utility in Vegas to work very well and scenelyzer doesn't seem any better. I can capture whole tapes in Vegas, but if I want to capture scenes or do anything more advanced it doesn't work. As soon as either capture program starts accessing the firewire port my computer bogs down and is slow to react to any commands. The only firewire ports that I have are through my Audigy 2 card. Does anyone have any experience with this setup? Should I be looking to add a dedicated firewire board to my PC? I know this woud be cheap enough, but how effective? Perhaps there is a Windows or software solution that I haven't found.

I'm running an Intel P4, 3.0 ghz. hyperthreading processor on an intel motherboard with 1 gig of kingston dual channel memory and two Western digital 7200 rpm drives. My friends are blown away by the speed of my fairly inexpensive setup, but as soon as I go to capture things seem to bog down.

Playback through my firewire to my camcorder and external monitor seems not too bad, if just a bit jittery on fast transitions.

p.s. when I do capture manually I'm not dropping frames

> Should I be looking to add a dedicated firewire board to my PC?<

That would be my first recommendation.

Gary

Preview Window - Interlaced footage Progressively
 

I thought there was a way to preview interlaced footage in the preview window deinterlaced, to avoid seeing all those ugly jaggies on my lcd. Can't remember where that was. Any clues?

File - Properties?

changing field order I guess, but I thought it was a specific option just for the preview monitor that didn't effect the Project Properties. I could be wrong. Anyone else care to take a stab? :)

seems like it happens only when u render project as PAL DV (vegas dv codec). when I render it as other dv codec it is okay. and it occurs on SOME of the transitions. then, video will be darker if there is TEXT MEDIA on top of it.
unfortunately, I rendered some stuff and when I deleted source, I saw these mistakes. :(

Okay... I shot this 16:9 footage with a Canon GL1 so it\'s actually already lossy if I\'m not mistaken. Are there any tricks or specific steps I should be sure to take to ensure the least amount of loss?

-K

How to "flip" event in Vegas?
 

Hi! Can anyone tell me how to "flip" an event in Vegas 5? I\'m trying to correct eyelines and can\'t find how to flip a particular take. Thank you.

If you open the PAN/CROP of that event, click on the center spot of the \'F\' in the pan/crop screen thee is a menu which will flip the clip horizontially or vertically.
Don

Thank you very much, Don.

I wanted to create a triptych split-screen, but alas I\'m quite useless in Vegas.

First I googled for "split screen vegas" but found nothing, and then I searched this forum for "split screen" and very quickly found this thread & the solution.

Track motion was what I was looking for, combined with making the screen wider in File> Properties.

Thanks, Edward!