it looks like the screen is all blue? have you tried any chroma keying?

i would use after effects corner pinning

you might be able to do this in your editor

good luck

Editting M2T transport stream vs Cineform AVI
 

OK, I'm confused by information I'm getting about the highest quality method to edit HDV. The conventional wisdom seems to be that I should edit m2T files native if I expect cuts only editting. If I intend to do much color correction or special FX, I should convert to the Cineform codec before editting.

Now, I hear that cut editting in Vegas7 does not quantize to the I-frame. If this is true, then re-rendering the entire m2t clip is necessary to redefine the I-frames for the entire clip. Re-rendering any mpeg2 file results in a degraded image quality. The advice is to use an editting software from womble.com to do cuts on a clip, because the womble software quantizes to the nearest I-frame.

Given this info, it would seem that editting native m2t files in vegas7 is still a no-starter, given that the entire m2t clip has to be rerendered...time and an image quality issue.

Am I right?

The entire frame needs to be re-rendered; Vegas doesn't have what many apps call "Smart Rendering." That said, Vegas does have a higher accuracy as a result, but accuracy vs speed isn't that important to some folks.
Vegas 7 does cut/seek I frames, however.
All that said, I generally still prefer converting to CineForm or other codec (I wish I could access the Cineform codec via my Xena card) because it holds together much more nicely, and more and more of our delivery is ending up on HDCAM, which requires conversion anyway.

Douglas...

thanx. perhaps in a future release vegas will incorporate smart rendering. it seems like I'm taking a hit, however small, for every render I do. That would be trivial if I could make all my cuts on one pass, however, I find that in my editting workflow, I continue to make cuts only edits until I finally finish the piece. Because playback is never real time in vegas, I have to go out to a playable version to find timing errors, then back into vegas to correct them. It's hard to get the final tempo of the peice without rendering to a playable version. I'm getting into the habit of going straight to HUFFYUV for editting, then back out to mpeg when I'm ready to release. Works nicely, except that all those re-renders really take t~i~m~e.

This is actually a really complex subject and has been talked about a bunch but here is my experience in a nutshell. I've done a bunch of work with the JVC and Vegas and as far as color correcting on the cheap:

Use Vegas secondary preview monitor function and select the "use color management" , "use studio RGB" , "sRGB Color Space Profile" in the Preview Device folder under Prefernces. Then open up some color bars and calibrate your monitor (if you can) or at least see how off it is and use that as a point of reference.

If you want to go out firewire to an external monitor you can't do this in HD - it all gets converted to standard def so any cheap firewire to component converter box will do the job. If you are going to be going to standard def anyway this is probably a good step to check your levels, etc.

Combining these two methods - starting on my dell 2405 via secondary preview and then checking on my little Toshiba NTSC monitor via ADS Pyro AVlink has given me pretty good results. Not perfect but it's pretty cheap :)

Hope this helps...

Just to be clear.
 

If you have a choice, re-render as few times as possible.

If you can edit in native HDV (from the original captured files) without rendering until your final delivery format, this is best.

Just take a test-pattern, render it to CFHD a few times, and compare it in the scopes to the original pattern. CFHD is a better intermediate format than m2t, but no intermediate is still best.

Any Ideas For Film Motion Blur
 

Hello everybody!
So, whatever I do, I can't get filmic motion blur with Vegas. The best motion blur ever I used is The Foundry Furnace (for AE), but it takes one whole life for rendering out a footage approx 1 hour. It is REALLY same as any film motion blur, i.e. no any shutter (strobes) or flickering, perfect blurred motion. That's why then on the TV I see very nice look&motion, but I can't get it with Vegas Motion Blur, no matter what adjustment I do.
So, any ideas and suggestions?

Have you tried RevisionFX ReelSmart Motion Blur?

The corner pinning in after effects worked perfectly! That was the first time I had ever used after effects, so it took me a little while to get it right....but once I had it sussed out it worked as planned.

Great! That's exactly what I was looking for.

I'll try the ADS Pyro. That seems to be even cheaper than the Canopus gadgets I saw.

Thanks, Burk.

Stephen H

Hi Will,

Sony got back to me and other than telling me to update all my drivers and stuff (which I have), offered no other solution.

Had to transfer my projects over to a friend's edit suite to finish them off :(.

Yes, of course, it is little faster, but not better result than Furnace. Shuttering and strobing still remain.

I got a reply from Sony today, yep, it was another lame reply from Sony.

I'm not at my home to quote it, but their reply was something like, '2 gig of ram may help performance but we would advise you to close down background processes.' To which I replied, ummm, thanks for the useless reply to my question.

I asked them point blank if the rendering of veg files has the same ram limitations as Vegas rendering avi's and mpegs and such. I asked them to actually reply to my question, I'll update this post if they actually give me an answer.

More Stupid Newbie Questions "Slicing Clips" and "Slow Motion"
 

Ok I for the life of me cannot figure out how to take a clip and cut it. Basically if I want to delete the first half out I have to shorten it by dragging it, there has got to be some way where I can cut it in the middle and just delete the unwanted?

Also Slow motion, how do I slow the clip down say I have a car do a burnout and half way through for a few seconds I want it to slow down?

Thanks NewB!

Put the cursor where you want it cut. Press "S" (Split)

For speed changes, either hold down the CTRL key and resize the clip or use a Velocity Envelope.