Vegas Video discussions from 2005 (Q3Q4)

Glenn Chan · December 14th, 2005, 09:18 AM

I don't bother with the media manager, so I turn it off to improve performance and take paper notes. I also put down markers into the Vegas clips. It works well enough for me.

For pure editing, FCP has some nice shortcuts like being able to type numbers into the keypad. Vegas has like half of those shortcuts- try holding the crtl, alt, and shift modifiers when you are over clips.
FCP is better for pure editing, cuts and dissolves.

As far as the other tools go, I find that Vegas is a lot better.

2- Vegas has multicam tools from third parties. I haven't compared it to FCP's, but I don't expect things to be all that much different.

Quote:

I have yet (Please someone tell me there is one) find a colour curves tool in FCP. There are correctors and tonnes of filters, but I can't find one like the Vegas curves.

Nattress Film Effects. They're the best value in filters around (other than buying Vegas :D ).

They don't behave exactly like the color curves in Vegas however.

You can get Magic Bullet or Color Finesse, but I wouldn't bother.

Phil Hamilton · December 14th, 2005, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenn Chan

I don't bother with the media manager, so I turn it off to improve performance and take paper notes. I also put down markers into the Vegas clips. It works well enough for me.

Glen - I agree regarding the media manager - can you refresh our minds on how to be sure that this is in fact turned off/disabled? tks

Glen Elliott · December 14th, 2005, 10:26 AM

I actually just go done selling my G5. I tried FCP to see if it would interest me enough to switch...here's my take...

FCP Pros:
- TRUE nestable timelines unlike the often unstable nestable VEG files offered in Vegas.
- Trimmer window trumps Vegas's half-hearted "trimmer" plus I love the ability to drag it into the track view window and choose what kind of drop in edit to choose!
- It has a way of visually telling you if levels are outside of broadcast range (a'la zebra patern) not a big deal to many but I thought it was slick!
- Better use of space; the layout is more effient for fitting more on the screen however at the price of some text sizes no larger than grains of Philly Pretzel salt!

FCP Cons:
- Transitions require more keystrokes and pre-planing. While in Vegas you overlap two clips and your done. Your video transitions are set ALONG with your audio. In FCP you have to butt two clips together and then add your video transitions, and THEN go down and add your audio transitions. Not to mention you have to make SURE you have enough footage on either side of each clip to MAKE a transition. I understand you can "insert with transition" when dragging media out of the viewer but what about when you have all your money shots ont he timeline...in order to use that function you have to drag it up into the viewer, move the cursor the the edit point, then drag it over into the timeline viewer and choose insert with transition.
- No way of restoring audio. You delete the audio- poof it's gone. However gotta thank Excalibur for that in regards to this function in Vegas.
- Slower when drawing waveforms. Anytime I zoom into the timeline or make the tracks larger it pauses to redraw the waveform. Vegas does this without redraw making it smoother and lag free.
- More difficult to scoot around zooming in and out. The scroll wheel utilized as zoom in and out on Vegas works wonders for efficiency in this regard.
- No way to turn off rippling. I like that Vegas give you several options of how a ripple occurs.
- Speed controls FCP has 3. Dial in the % or use something that looks similar to a Vegas Velocity envelope but does so through wrestling with what I felt was an ackward interface outside of the timeline. When you change the percentage of a clip it'll ripple everything in your timeline as it stretches to it's new length. The third is fit to fill (if I have that named correctly) where you have to add 4 points and it stretches the video to fill a specified gap in the timeline- something that can be done with a single mouse stroke in Vegas. Nothing beats the ease and efficiency of 1) Velocity Envelopes and 2) Ctrl+Drag method of changing the speed of a clip and quickly and easily filling a gap in the timeline.

Glen Elliott · December 14th, 2005, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil Hamilton

Glen - I agree regarding the media manager - can you refresh our minds on how to be sure that this is in fact turned off/disabled? tks

Under Options Preferences uncheck the box.

John Rofrano · December 14th, 2005, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troy Haines

What choice do I need to choose to output to the same format (*.m2t) So I can send the footage back to tape?

The MainConcept MPEG-2 template in Vegas for rendering HDV back to tape is HDV 1080-60i.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troy Haines

Secondly what choices do i choose to render to a format to make a dvd ??

There are lots of choices that work. If you want to preserve the 16:9 aspect and 60i cadence of the original footage you would use the DVD Architect PAL Widescreen video stream followed by an AC3 Stereo render for the audio. (assuming you shot PAL in Australia).

~jr

Kevin Red · December 14th, 2005, 11:24 AM

817. That sounds right. Thank you!

Troy Haines · December 14th, 2005, 03:26 PM

Thanks for you help guys !

Cheers

Steve Crisdale · December 14th, 2005, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troy Haines

Thanks for you help guys !

Cheers

Just remember that you are in a PAL zone...

So; the 60i frame rate mentioned by the above responders becomes 50i. (Unless you bought a NTSC 30p/60i camera off-shore, as all Aussie sold HD/HDV cams must be PAL 25p/50i)

Not that it'll really kill any DVD or project in Vegas if you wrote 60i, because pretty well every TV and DVD player here in Oz, can handle multi-synch/multi format.

These forums are excellent resources - just be aware that there are regional differences even in HD, and the appropriate frame rate for the region one lives in, is one thing that should be tatooed onto the consciousness of any person getting into this stuff.

You might be the sort of person who gets a kick out of seeing strange things happening with your video though...

Kevin Red · December 14th, 2005, 08:10 PM

what about DV?

Ian Slessor · December 14th, 2005, 11:16 PM

Hello all,

Thanks for the input Ed & Matt.

Doug, here's what I was hoping to do.

I wanted the menu selector to be like a cursor, only appearing beside the selection you want to activate.

I am using PSP 8 and the images I'm utilizing are .png with transparencies.

I've tried various combinations of thumbnail and masks along with custom highlights but it was all for naught.

I can manipulate the fill colour, anti-alias & the outline but they're monochromatic.

I was hoping for a nice, vibrant, colourful toy soldier to appear beside whichever menu option you want (like the above mentioned cursor) but after fiddling with various settings and checking out various forums it would appear that this option isn't yet available. If that's the case, OK. I'll make do but it seems like such a simple thing I'm not sure why it couldn't be done.

Am I missing something?

*ian waits for the large, stinky salmon to strike him in the head*

sincerely,

ian

PS. I followed the directions in Ed's newsletter he recommended Vol 2 #6 and it's nice to have some clarification on masks but it still doesn't give me the "cursor" look I was seeking.

Matt Brabender · December 15th, 2005, 02:04 AM

ah ok
yeah, I investigated that thoroughly and there's just no way to do it in dvd architect.
sorry

Sean Seah · December 15th, 2005, 08:38 AM

Thanks, I got it working already!!

Steve House · December 15th, 2005, 09:39 AM

The Vegas 6.0c update has caused many plugins such as Noise Reduction to revert to demo mode when it was installed over older versions. Any fixes available yet?

Edward Troxel · December 15th, 2005, 10:05 AM

Beyond trying to reinstall Noise Reduction from the original source, I would contact Sony Tech Support.

Another option might be to totally uninstall everything Sony, delete the folders, and then reinstall everything.

December 15th, 2005, 10:49 AM

Thanks for the feedback.. It sounds like theres positives and negatives in making the switch.. One thing im really curious of, will FCP edit both PAL and NTSC on the same timeline ? I use this feature a fair bit with Vegas and id rather not loose that or find myself switching back to Vegas all the time.. Also whats the stability of FCP like ? Does it crash at all ? Im not sure about everyone else but Vegas is so rock solid for me..

December 14th, 2005, 10:26 AM	#1413
Glen Elliott Wrangler Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 2,898	I actually just go done selling my G5. I tried FCP to see if it would interest me enough to switch...here's my take... FCP Pros: - TRUE nestable timelines unlike the often unstable nestable VEG files offered in Vegas. - Trimmer window trumps Vegas's half-hearted "trimmer" plus I love the ability to drag it into the track view window and choose what kind of drop in edit to choose! - It has a way of visually telling you if levels are outside of broadcast range (a'la zebra patern) not a big deal to many but I thought it was slick! - Better use of space; the layout is more effient for fitting more on the screen however at the price of some text sizes no larger than grains of Philly Pretzel salt! FCP Cons: - Transitions require more keystrokes and pre-planing. While in Vegas you overlap two clips and your done. Your video transitions are set ALONG with your audio. In FCP you have to butt two clips together and then add your video transitions, and THEN go down and add your audio transitions. Not to mention you have to make SURE you have enough footage on either side of each clip to MAKE a transition. I understand you can "insert with transition" when dragging media out of the viewer but what about when you have all your money shots ont he timeline...in order to use that function you have to drag it up into the viewer, move the cursor the the edit point, then drag it over into the timeline viewer and choose insert with transition. - No way of restoring audio. You delete the audio- poof it's gone. However gotta thank Excalibur for that in regards to this function in Vegas. - Slower when drawing waveforms. Anytime I zoom into the timeline or make the tracks larger it pauses to redraw the waveform. Vegas does this without redraw making it smoother and lag free. - More difficult to scoot around zooming in and out. The scroll wheel utilized as zoom in and out on Vegas works wonders for efficiency in this regard. - No way to turn off rippling. I like that Vegas give you several options of how a ripple occurs. - Speed controls FCP has 3. Dial in the % or use something that looks similar to a Vegas Velocity envelope but does so through wrestling with what I felt was an ackward interface outside of the timeline. When you change the percentage of a clip it'll ripple everything in your timeline as it stretches to it's new length. The third is fit to fill (if I have that named correctly) where you have to add 4 points and it stretches the video to fill a specified gap in the timeline- something that can be done with a single mouse stroke in Vegas. Nothing beats the ease and efficiency of 1) Velocity Envelopes and 2) Ctrl+Drag method of changing the speed of a clip and quickly and easily filling a gap in the timeline. __________________ Glen Elliott Cord 3 Films

December 14th, 2005, 11:24 AM	#1416
Kevin Red Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 103	817. That sounds right. Thank you! __________________ AMD Athalon 2800 (2.08ghz) running Windows XP sp2 1GB of RAM Vegas 6.0 NLE 300+ GB hard drive space running SATA RAID 0 With an NVIDEA Geforce FX 5600XT http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/search.php?searchid=149990

December 14th, 2005, 08:10 PM	#1419
Kevin Red Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 103	what about DV? __________________ AMD Athalon 2800 (2.08ghz) running Windows XP sp2 1GB of RAM Vegas 6.0 NLE 300+ GB hard drive space running SATA RAID 0 With an NVIDEA Geforce FX 5600XT http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/search.php?searchid=149990

December 15th, 2005, 09:39 AM	#1423
Steve House Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Posts: 5,742	Vegas 6c breaks plugins - any fix? The Vegas 6.0c update has caused many plugins such as Noise Reduction to revert to demo mode when it was installed over older versions. Any fixes available yet? __________________ Good news, Cousins! This week's chocolate ration is 15 grams!

December 15th, 2005, 10:05 AM	#1424
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Beyond trying to reinstall Noise Reduction from the original source, I would contact Sony Tech Support. Another option might be to totally uninstall everything Sony, delete the folders, and then reinstall everything. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

December 14th, 2005, 03:26 PM	#1417
Troy Haines New Boot Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 14	Thanks for you help guys ! Cheers

December 14th, 2005, 11:16 PM	#1420
Ian Slessor Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: South-Central Ontario, Canada Posts: 216	Hello all, Thanks for the input Ed & Matt. Doug, here's what I was hoping to do. I wanted the menu selector to be like a cursor, only appearing beside the selection you want to activate. I am using PSP 8 and the images I'm utilizing are .png with transparencies. I've tried various combinations of thumbnail and masks along with custom highlights but it was all for naught. I can manipulate the fill colour, anti-alias & the outline but they're monochromatic. I was hoping for a nice, vibrant, colourful toy soldier to appear beside whichever menu option you want (like the above mentioned cursor) but after fiddling with various settings and checking out various forums it would appear that this option isn't yet available. If that's the case, OK. I'll make do but it seems like such a simple thing I'm not sure why it couldn't be done. Am I missing something? ian waits for the large, stinky salmon to strike him in the head sincerely, ian PS. I followed the directions in Ed's newsletter he recommended Vol 2 #6 and it's nice to have some clarification on masks but it still doesn't give me the "cursor" look I was seeking.

December 15th, 2005, 02:04 AM	#1421
Matt Brabender Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 230	ah ok yeah, I investigated that thoroughly and there's just no way to do it in dvd architect. sorry

December 15th, 2005, 08:38 AM	#1422
Sean Seah Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,498	Thanks, I got it working already!!

December 15th, 2005, 10:49 AM	#1425
Guest Posts: n/a	Thanks for the feedback.. It sounds like theres positives and negatives in making the switch.. One thing im really curious of, will FCP edit both PAL and NTSC on the same timeline ? I use this feature a fair bit with Vegas and id rather not loose that or find myself switching back to Vegas all the time.. Also whats the stability of FCP like ? Does it crash at all ? Im not sure about everyone else but Vegas is so rock solid for me..