Vince was asking about stills but I wonder if we could expand it to cover animated Powerpoint presentations.

I have had only limited success using software like CamStudio and Camtasia to capture a full screen presentation containing animated elements. I wonder if anyone else has enjoyed better success with any other tools?

I'm not aware of any tool that can convert a Powerpoint presentation into, for example, an avi. Anyone know of such a beast?

While writing this it occured to me that there may be tools to convert PP into Flash which can then be brought into Vegas. A brief search tells me there are, although the couple I looked at were a little out of my price range.

Any experiences people might like to share?

Camtasia (or it's smaller brother "SnagIt") is probably one of the better ways to go in order to get the animations. Here's a tutorial where someone used Camtasia:
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com...int-to-dvd.htm

Another option would be to run the computer output through a scan convertor back into Vegas. However, that's a long convoluted process - camtasia's much easier.

If you're only wanting the stills, check out Liam's image convertor:
http://stream.imagebeam.com/tools/po...imageexporter/

few vegas questions
 

Hello

I have a few questions about vegas

1. once i have applied an effect to my video is there any way to preview the footage in full screen without rendering out the whole seen first?

2. what settings do i need to choose when starting a new project?


3. i have the FX1 PAL what settings do i need to output to, in order to get the highest quality? final results will be put onto a DVD for viewing on a HD set.


Thanks for the help.

Mainconcept H.264 V2
 

Hi, does anybody know, how can i integrate the H.264 in Vegas?
I have licensed H.264 V2 encoder, I can converted my output files in this encoder, but i would like to do it in Vegas, like with MPEG2 (or Divx and etc.)- just choose codek and run rendering.... there is also problem, that Vegas does not recognize files in H.264 ...

Tanks, H.W.

On2, cleaner, etc. Everybody's entitled to my opinion ;-)
 

I don't think the On2 codec is better than WMV, but finally it is in a decent ballpark and flash video has come of age. I think the choice of flash video is now reasonable, but you'd probably choose it because of the other things you can do in a flash layout. Best interactivity, best vector animation, best ability to deal with layers, best ability to change screen layouts on the fly.

Cleaner is dead-ended and hasn't received an update in a long time. Apparently Discreet (who bought it from Terran several years ago) is not and will not be putting any resources toward keeping this formerly great application up to date.

1. once i have applied an effect to my video is there any way to preview the footage in full screen without rendering out the whole seen first?

Sure. Assuming you mean external preview, you can just connect an external device via firewire (through a camera or convertor) and click the 'External preview' button. This will show you your effects UNLESS you've pressed the split screen button just above the preview screen. You also have an option of sending the external preview to a secondary monitor. That's all configurable in the preferences.


2. what settings do i need to choose when starting a new project?

Depends on what type of project you're doing. Assuming you're using HD footage (based on the next question), and you're going to an SD DVD, you'll probably want to use one of the widescreen presets. You can also use any appropriate HD preset as well.



3. i have the FX1 PAL what settings do i need to output to, in order to get the highest quality? final results will be put onto a DVD for viewing on a HD set.

There are many answers to this question in the HDV Vegas forum. For example, take a look at this thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=384976

First of all, are you using Vegas 6.0c?

Hello

Thank you very much for the reply.

2 other quick questions

1. is it possible to use the LCD display of the camera to preview the footage in vegas?

2. i have just ran into a problem everything seems to be working ok but when i try to apply a transition it does not work. i have read through the help and still does not work for me. what i do is go to transitions choose the effect i want then drag it onto the timeline but its not going on there nothing happens any ideas? Am I doing it correct by going to transitions choosing the effect then dragging it onto the timeline?

Thank you for any help

You can but I wouldn't recommend it. Low resolution, and doesn't show artifacts that would appear on CRTs.

It also may not overscan.

Is there a fade transition there already? Drag the end of one clip and overlap it onto the other.

Then apply the transition.

Hi Glenn

Thank you for your help works great now

i am going to order the vegas training dvd i think that’s going to be the best because there is a lot in there to learn and to get the best out of it the training would go along way so i am going to get that and hope i can learn all the things i need to.

Thanks again for the help

yes, i have the 6.0c version..

Jim, you might also want to check out the newsletters on my website. Especially look at the "Beginner's Corner" series beginning in the 4th issue.

totally cool. It worked like a champ! Thanks.

BTW- is there a good guide to the various codecs that are out there, maybe something that would describe the various changes a person can make - what the various controls mean, and what the effect is on your finished video?

I know that a person could run many tests, but then again, maybe somebody already has.

Thanks again for the help!
Milt Lee

There are lots of codec comparisons, but nothing I've seen that's remotely up to date...codecs nowadays are coming out faster than the government spends money.

I've not seen anything that makes comparisons based around various codec controls, that could grow into a huge comparison just on one codec alone.

Because saving as stills from Power Point saves each COMPLETE slide, the way I've gone about getting each line from a slide as it's introduced is simply to Print Screen after each line is brought in. PSP has a multiple Print Screen feature, so I expect Photoshop does too.

I then have a series of stills which I can apply linear wipe or other transitions to in Vegas to "simulate" the Power Point presentation.

This doesn't copy the "cheesier" PPt transitions, but personally I think this is a good thing ;)

Wipes are better than slide transitions because the latter displaces the whole slide whilst Wipe just "paints" each new line in.

thanks guys

Vince

For whatever it's worth, I use the 4:3 standard template in Vegas with clips from an FX1, VX2000 and Panasonic, for my final product being SD mpeg2 for DVD.

Vince,

You may also want to look at an application called PPT-100 from Datavideo. This is an application that converts powerpoint shows to a DV stream in real-time. They also have a downloadable demo on their website at http://www.datavideo.us/products/ppt_100_main_page.htm. MSRP on this software is $199.00 US.

Check out some of the gear on the Datavideo site. They make some very cool pieces depending on your need. An no, I am in no way affiliated with them!


Hope it helps!

Lance

Well, Shazbot!
 

I've been with Vegas since v4. I've got the current version of v6. It's like an old friend, sort of.

Now I've got a brand new Sony DSR-400 (which is an absolutely awesome camera), and I capture to Vegas. But I have no camera controls through Vegas. And, worse, I can't burn to tape through it after I edit.

I know this is a camera problem, not a Vegas problem. But I just spent $14 Grand on a camera and accessories, and I can't burn to tape unless I burn through my old XL-1s, then dub to the DSR-400 from the XL-1s.

Any better ideas out there? Please.

Much grass.

PS: The reason I still need to burn to tape is I shoot news features and I take the tape, not a DVD, to the station.

Hey Charles, long time-no see.
Congrats on the new cam! It's a sweetheart.
This one's likely a job for the folks at Sony/Madison. You've got firewire enabled in the camera, correct? (It can be turned off)
I know there are a few older DSR products that can't be run correctly from Vegas, but I thought all the newer products were good to go.

[edit] Charles, I was talking to one of the engineers this morning, and he told me they've tested the 400 with Vegas 6c. Are you using the latest build? I should have asked that first.

Monitoring 1080i HD with LCD?
 

I've been considering putting together a seperate HD monitor using the 24" Dell DVI monitor and HDLink from Black Magic Designs. What I'm wondering is if I'm working primarily with 1080i footage, how can a progressive scan LCD monitor show this correctly? Am I wasting time and money and losing accuracy with this setup?

Also would it be possible to feed this monitor video from a PC graphics card, or would HDLink be the only way? HDLink seems to take the HD stream via USB. Does Vegas 6 support this?

Ratzerfratz
 

Hi, DSE... and thanks for the reply.

In the camera' operating manual, I just found out, it states in black and white you can't burn to tape from an NLE. Bummer. So, I guess now I'm going to have to buy a deck of some kind... then burn to the deck, and dub to tape through the camera. That sucks.

But the camera is so sweet I almost don't mind. I cannot believe how awesome it is in low light conditions, and those 2/3" chips make stunning images. I did a piece for CBS News' Early Show two weeks ago, and they were blown away. (It helped, I must admit, that I shot the stuff with the Aspen Glow in the background behind my subjects.)

Anyway, I don't think there's anything Vegas can do about this problem. Rats.

I guess I misunderstood, I thought you couldn't capture from the cam, nor control it during capture. My error.
yeah, those cams are designed to be used as cams, not as decks. PITA sometimes.

Audio out of synch when opening project in DVD-A
 

I'm doing something wrong--either in Vegas or Architect:

Before I render my project, the audio synchs-up perfectly with my video using Vegas 6.
Then I render my video as MPEG 2 and then my audio as AC-3. When I open the project in DVD-A 3.0, the audio is out of synch with the video by approx. 1 to 1 1/2 seconds.

--Dale

It's probably in your Vegas encoding. By chance, are you using any region or markers to identify the area from which you're encoding? That would help quite a bit, I'd think.
If the start times aren't to the sample accurate, you'll find sync issues are commonplace.
My workflow is to identify the render zone/region, and then create a region using that identified space

Software to add to Vegas
 

I have Vegas 5 and Photoshop CS and wanted to add some software to improve future projects. Could anyone suggest some software you would want in addition to Vegas and Photoshop CS. I would like to make great DVD menus and some effects and titles. Any must haves?

I'd recommend having Swish/Flash of some kind in there, those really help. You'll be surprised at what you can build with CS. Richard Harrington has a great DVD set out for doing exactly this.
Another handy tool is Bluff Titler, and same with Heroglyph. But in terms of DVD menus, CS or CS2 are wonderful for most applications, unless you're looking to build multi-layer vid.
What I often do is build part of my menus in Photoshop, with transparency in certain areas, and then put those into Vegas, to create deeper motion menus.

thanks Lance

Thank you Douglas, look forward to seeing you next time you travel to NYC.

Choppy preview with many clips
 

So here is what I'm working on http://www.johnrofrano.com/tutorials/parentmotion.htm

I wanted the clips to continue indefinately, and I understand how to repeat the motion group of clips to make that happen.

Where I am having issues is, in the preview. I don't have an external monitor so I use the preview on the computer. And it is so jerky and lagged it's impossible to really use.

I just built my NLE, it's an AMD dual core 3800 with 2 gigs of ram and the new Matrox Melinium with 128megs of ram.

I was thinking about turning off the preview on each clip to see if that would make a difference. By preview, I mean when you look at the clip on the timeline you can see it's actual view.

For what ever reason with 21 clips running on the scroll, the preview is terrible, lagged even on the lowest preview settings. BTW, I'm not using the audio, these are only video clips.

I'm a little annoyed that with a brand new system, that this idea is dragging so bad.

I guess I need a new approach to my issue.

What quality do you have your preview set to? For HDV, it's best to be at Preview/Auto.

DMA enabled on all drives? You're not using your C: drive for media, right?
Are you editing m2t streams, proxies, or CineForm DI's?

I'll have to check [at my slave job right now] when I get home about what preview settings I have. I've tried every one of them, even the lowest quality, but at that point alignment of the clips is impossible.

DMA should be enabled on all my drives, but I don't use my C drive for media storage, I possibly may use it for the project files, but not the video files themselves. I'm using my finished mpeg 2s for this project.

There is no way any non-hardware assisted system can decode m2t files and have track motion for several files, while still giving reasonable playback. This is why proxies and/or CineForm are recommended, or in your case...required.

So this is your recommendation?

http://www.cineform.com/products/ConnectHD.htm

Assuming your system is faster than 3.2 GHz, yes. There are other options as well.
Keep in mind, the CineForm intermediary is included with Vegas 6 if you have that. It's getting to it that takes a little extra time. There is also GearShift, which is a VASST product, which does all the work for you.
http://www.vasst.com/product.aspx?id...d-aa4954c324a3
You can download a 14 day demo of both the full-blown CineForm (which is a wonderful asset) and download a 14 day demo of GearShift as well.

Thank you, I just bought Vegas 6 a month ago. Thank you for your time and help.

yo, learning curve!!
 

Sigh.

I just typed hammer and tongs asking you experts why a wav render would consistently crash at 78%, whether on a 101 minute long project or a 2.5 minute long one (made both sizes fail at the same 78% this morning).

I believe in Searching before posting and gleaned this little nugget about checking yr RAM allocation in Vegas if having render-crash issues. So i lowered my RAM cache from 300Mb down to 20, just a bit more than the default 16Mb value. (I'd jacked that value up last year when doing a project that needed dynamic previews constantly)

So while composing my 'Help!' post this morning I set the 101-minute long movie audio to rendering, expecting to get yet another data point in the crash cycle. Typed many paragraphs to you all, setting up the conditions, the specs, the subtle variables etc that might explain why i've been unable to render any audio today past the 78% threshold.

Welll....looks like it was the RAM value. The full 101 minute movie audio just now rendered normally and plays perfectly. No sweat.

Hope this still serves as a data point for someone--

Still a valid question: when would anyone use W64 as a wav template?? That "Render large audio files as W64" option in Prefs has always intrigued me, but neither in Vegas nor Forge can i find info on when to use it.

Valid question #2: how much benefit is afforded by rendering say, several tracks of music and effects to a new single track? That's what i first assumed was the choke point this morning: a scene that had 9 tracks of M&E, with much panning, vol envelopes, and pitch shifts-- the ref to new-track rendering in the help files mentions downmixing as a means of conserving processor power-- what's the scoop? DSE??

Best wishes all,

MRP

HDCam in Vegas
 

I have decided for my projects that I will hire out the camera work to be shot in HDCam. I want to do the editing and have a 32 bit processor so I can't add a deck link card. I am going to upgrade my whole system to handle HDSDI. Can anyone tell me if Vegas can edit uncompressed w/o Decklink? I am considering a system such as Matrox with it's own real time pci card vs an onboard video card. If I capture this way, can Vegas still recognize the capture?

Vegas will recognize the captured *files* but won't recognize the capture card.
Workflow would be:
1. Capture using Matrox (or other card) and accompanying software.
2. Open files in Vegas, edit, render
3. Print to tape using Matrox card and accompanying software.

Vegas doesn't use any of the accelerator functions, nor codec functions of the Decklink card. It simply uses it as a recognized I/O

Need serious help! NTSC to PAL conversion and audio sync
 

Hi all,
I'm trying to convert a medical symposium video (shot in NTSC) to PAL for some overseas customers, and i'm having some major problems!! I've re-rendered each Vegas file (i'm still using Vegas 4) to PAL format, and am trying to rebuild the DVDA projects with the new PAL mpeg2 files. First, i observe that the DVDA project becomes much bigger in file size (as much as 2 GB bigger) when set to PAL output. I am currently trying to compensate for that by decreasing the filesize. However, the biggy is that DVDA keeps wanting to recompress the audio (ac3). It's the same audio i've been using in the NTSC versions of the DVD with no problem. It's also out of sync. Any ideas? Am i missing something or doing something incorrectly?
I appreciate any and al input. My customers are great and very patient, but i'm looking forward to shipping some copies and getting the project out of my hair!
Kind Regards,
matt lewis