Boris Graffiti Ltd Text is horrific, am doing right?
 

I purchased Vegas 7 and Boris Gaffiti Ltd came with it as most of you know. The Ltd version is severly limited but was hoping to at least see wonderfull sharp text at least. So... I did all my keyframing and effects in the stand alone "keyframer" then... because Ltd, have to "Export" as avi file. All settings are at Highest, 720x480 with Alpha Strait. Bring this file into Vegas, right click it, properties, media, Alpha Channel Strait and makes the background transparent. Now... everything seems to be going ok... but when exporting (even on highest settings) The text is HORRIBLE... regular Vegas Text is MUCH better and even graphic text I have made. It jitters, it combs, it loses shape when it moves... What is the deal? Am I doing somthing wrong or is this the maximum capability of the LTD > have to export version?

Movie Studio & Widescreen
 

Hi - simple question that is confusing me!

If I shoot with camera set in 16:9 mode, should I be renderin the subsequent .avi and .mpg files in normal PAL or PAL Widescreen for them to display correctly on a widescreen TV?

Thanks!

Excalibur problem on a managed computer
 

I installed Vegas 7.0b and Excalibur as the admistrator on a computer at my school. When other users log on to that computer they can use Vegas but get a list of unaccessible resources when they try to run Excalibur. Is this a known issue?

No.


Does it say what resources aren't available? Do other scripts run?


Send me an e-mail and we'll see about figuring out what the issue might be.

on windows
 

The OS controls memory allocation. 1/2 of physical RAM is dedicated to the OS, regardless of need. That is just hard coded behavior. I have found that a render of Vegas cannot use any more than 900MB of ram. THe limiting factor has always been CPU. OF course I am rendering on a 2.5GB system so given the 1.2 rule of windows, I "only" have 1.25GB to play with for all the apps running at one time.

jason

I had heard that too, about the limitted use of ram, but I thought it was more than 1 gig.

I was just wondering if vegas limitations on rendering actual video files is the same when rendering veg files, such as those updated and then rerendered in a master project.

my mistake
 

I have no reason to guess that the limitation would be different if rendering nested veg files or working on only one. DSE may have more info on that.

jason

probably widescreen
 

Since the source is widescreen, the render should be as well, unless you are also making a pan / scan version for 4:3. Then include the 16:9 project into a 4:3 project and use the "crop" to focus on where the attention is.

jason

Thanks Ed. I created a new local computer user account and put it in the power users group. That works, but I have to really trust the users, and we're talking high school students. It would be nicer if it would work with their network logon (on just that computer, of course). So I'll try to capture the error message tomorrow and email it to you.

Fred, please let me know what your eventual solution is as I have similar issues with Vegas.
I'm running 3 student Vegas suites at the college I work for and I've found out that, under student profile (XP SP2), a number of things do not work properly. For example, scripts and the ability to import an audio track from CD are my two main concerns.
I'm asssuming it's a Windows issue but I'm not certain nor do I know wher eto begin looking.
Also, like you, I have no desire to swtch them to a power user profile :-(

Mike, do ALL scripts cause a problem in this situation?

Windows Strikes Again!
 

This is indeed a windows issue. Restricted users on WinXP do not have access to some of hte same features as power users. Unfortunately, it sounds like the Vegas install application (NOTE: I worked for Hewlett-Packard's software installer division for several years) does NOT correctly support the NT user / group permissions. A correctly installed application would ask if the install should be made available to all users or just the current user.

There may be another way called the "Set Program Access & Defaults" which you can use to grant access to certain programs to users.

jason

Thanks for the tip Jason. I'll look into that after the semester is over and I have some free time.

Edward, as I recall, it affects all scripts as well as the "extract CD" option. I haven't been able to get near a computer yet today to confirm this though. The end of the semester is fast approaching and this means deadlines have to be met which translates to panicking students :-)

vegas rendering question 60i / 30F (canon)
 

I'm using a Canon XH A1 and am planning to do a shoot (school holiday show really) in widescreen SD. Since the camera's new, I've been doing a few tests all the way through encode / create DVD to confirm the workflow and also see a few samples.

I did one test, 30F (progressive), and when I encoded and played on both an interlaced monitor and progressive display (high def TV), I noticed a flickering which shouldn't be there. Checking the encoding settings, I had told it to encode interlaced, but the source was progressive, which I thought was my problem.

Change the encode on 30F to field order progressive only, and I still get the flicker (which I thought should be gone).

If I tape in 60i, and encode in interlaced (field order as defaults), it looks fine..no flicker, as I would think should happen.

I think I've got the source of the problem identified (field order vs. source material interlaced vs progressive), but for some reason, changing the encoding on the 30F didn't seem to change anything.

Has anyone come across this and/or figured out what's happening here?

That slowness is a general problem of doing anything HD on a PC or MAC unless you have one of those add-in cards like a Canopus Edius or Matrox RTX2. Not that I am ready to go back to using one, but I have to work around this slowness by rendering my HD files over a weekend.