I haven't changed any of the prefs and I think I've combined larger video and AC3 files before. But size seem like the only thing left, so I'll try rendering the vid at 5000 to create some more room. It's not a big deal, the whole process still only takes a half hour, but it just worries me when I seem to have random behavior I can't control. What's worse is the video glitches I'm getting, but I think I'll make that separate thread.

Video Glitches
 

In my current project I'm getting too many of those short "freezes" you often see once or twice even in commercial DVDs. The accompanying audio is unaffected. I've got six of these freezes in a 90 minute video, which I'd guess are about 5 to 10 frames long. The video has some wonderful closeups of guitar, drum, bass, sax and keyboard movements. for a young jazz band, so the freezes are real spoilers.

The AVI and the MPG2 are free of the glitches, so they occur in DVD Architect's VOB builing routine. I've tried remaking the DVD and the glitches just move around randomly. I have to watch the full 90 minutes of video each time to see where they occur, hoping for a take with minimal impact so I that I can make some copies for people. Grrrr!

Anyone familiar with this problem and know how to minimize it?

What bitrate? What media brand?
Usually, the "freeze" you see is due to the layer break point, I don't see them anywhere else in commercial DVDs (or our burned DVDs either) except at break points.

Automation in Vegas
 

I did a search and couldn't find anything about automation in Vegas. I just started using Vegas and getting the hang of it but what I can't find anywhere is automation button like premiere has. I have 1 hour of scenes and I want to automate them with the crossfades can this be done like Premire? I tried doing it manually and it was not fun. Thank's for any info you all can give.

Chad

Automation of what? Xfades? that can be managed via the Editing tab in the Preferences, for when you drag multiple bits of media. There are lots of scripts to auto-transition butt cuts/jump cuts as well.
Audio may be automated, as well as certain parameters of various plugins/filters.

Thank's for the info. Thats just what I was looking for. Very much appreciated

Spot,
For media I'm just using single layer 16x Sony DVD+R. But the freezes aren't due to writing errors. As viewed with WinDVD, the problem is absent in the MPEG-2 file going into DVA, but present in the VOB file set coming out of it.

The bit rate is 5500 kbps. 2.4 GHz machine with 7200 RPM drives running in Mode 4. The source files are on the E drive and output is to the C drive.

The quality of the DVD media itself makes a big difference. The DVD player you are using also makes a difference- if it isn't playing commercially pressed DVDs correctly, it may not be very good (or just need cleaning).

That's my guess anyways. You can solve this by trying better media like Taiyo Yuden.

It's not the media or the DVD player in this case. The glitches are in the VOB files in the DVD folder on my hard drive. I can see them when I play the files on my computer before burning any DVDs.

its not size, unless DVD A bar goes red.. yours is yellow...

are u rendering ur video with embeded audio?

more than likely this is whats happening and DVDA is trying to make it compliant. Make sure that the actual AC3 file is with the correct video file in the media track area... its an easy thing to miss...

How to create a scrambled checkerboard effect
 

Hello Vegas experts.

I'm looking for the simplest way to create a "scrambled checkerboard" effect. Here's the idea: Divide the video screen into a bunch of squares. Grab the video from one square, possibly rotate it and place it in another square.

I figure that I need a track for each square. Do also I need to generate a square mask externally for each square?

I've always found Vegas' Track Motion and Pan and Crop windows to be a bit limited. I would like to be able to switch between the "source" and "target" domains, and manipulate them somewhat independently.

Also, does Vegas offer a simple box mask generator?

Any suggestions are very welcome. I'd like to do this efficiently, rather than with a cascade of hacks.

Thanks!

Anything black and white can be a mask. However, Pan/Crop and Track Motion may very well be all you need. You'll need multiple tracks and copies of the clip. Now use Pan/Crop to isolate one section (Bezier Masking should work for this). Then use Track Motion to move and rotate that section.

Thanks Edward,

I wanted to avoid clip events, so I can easily replace clips and render out different versions. Here's what I ended up doing:

1) I created multiple tracks.
2) I applied the Cookie Cutter effect to the track, set it as a square and positioned it differently on each track.
3) I used the Track Motion effect to move the squares about.

The biggest problem has been reverse engineering the math, so the squares line up properly.

This works great with nested projects. I can point all of the clips in the project to a single project. That lets me drop the new source video into one track of the first project and have the second "scrambler" project automatically put the new video on every track.

I knew that nested projects would be very cool. I finally get to use it in practice.

Video Player already in use
 

I keep getting a strange error using Vegas. I'm capturing using Connect HD. Converting to AVI. I've used Vegas for over a year with the exact same devices with no problems till now. My individual clips(AVI's) play fine and import into Adobe Premiere without a problem. However when I import into Vegas 5 or 6, I get some clips that are fine then a block of clips that are blacked out and when I try to preview the blacked out clips I get an error. Video player already in use. Sometimes it even kicks me out of the program. Has anyone seen this happen before. I've tried re-installing both Vegas and ConnectHd...Any suggestions would be great. I can use Adobe for now but I really prefer Vegas.

Darrin,
Have you installed any new software recently? Like going from Windows Media Player 9 to 10?

Specs
 

Okay I've bought a standard spec PC, P4 Dual 3ghz proc, 1gb ram etc.. What graphics card would you guys recommend. It has pci express ports. Assuming I am going to be running connect HD as well. So what do you guys reckon? What do you all have?

It really doesn't matter---because Vegas is processor driven. I used a Matrox 550 card for years (bought it for under a hundred dollars) without problems. I would get a card that offers duel monitor support. I use a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 and it works fine.

I also recommend getting a graphics card with dual monitor support.

Having two or more monitors is a big improvement when using Vegas.

Hmmm
 

Hey Greg,
I'm currently using Windows Media 10, but I think it was working ok with that before. I don't think I have added any software. I use the system for a dedicated sound/ video system. That is definately an interesting question however. Something must have changed, I just can't think of what.

Darrin

Get the HIS X1600 with dual DVI. It's around $150. Then, you can use the ATI AVIVO Rendering Utility to speed up your renders to MPEG1/2, MPEG4, iPod, PSP, etc. considerably.

If you can identify when the problems started, you might try a system restore to before that point. Could be one of the MS 'fixes' did something to you if you have been doing regular Windows Updates.

Explorer Window in Vegas missing files...
 

When in Windows I can find the audio files I am looking for just fine. They should also be seen in the Explorer window within VEGAS. Others I have can be seen and added to the timeline.

These are newly added files to my computer - ripping off of CD, etc. They are wav and mp3. They play fine and I can add them by finding them in the windows interface and dragging them to the timeline.

Why are they not showing up within Vegas? It's as if the refresh is not working. I have rebooted my computer and of course Vegas. Anyone else have this problem? tks.

forget it....
 

I just answered my own question......

Thanks guys. I was thinking of getting the matrox avpe.

Lip Sync Problem
 

Hello,

I got this DVD containing a conference from a client. They wanted me to translate and subtitle it. I did a rip with some freeware software to get the files into avi's with the DV codec. This seemed to work fine, There was a size limit, so I got 4 files, each one aprox. 4 gigs. I started putting subtitles using the text utility, They wanted subtitles burned in the image and not a track on a dvd. When I finished this and started reviewing the project there were a lot of lip sync problems so I separated the audio and video files and started moving the audio files at some poins to keep the sync. This was a really long process since the conference has a duration of 1 hour and a half. and it went out of synch aprox. every 2 minutes. So I saved the project, went home and the next morning I opened the project and it was out os synch again, so I workrd on it to correct it but the same happened as soon as I exited Vegas the project was out os sync when I opened it. So what I did was to perform a render of the full out os sync project and then I took this avi to premiere and corrected the issue there. It workes, but I'm really want to know if anyone has an idea of what happened. ¿Maybe the ripped files were loosing a frame?

Thanks for you attention.

You might try ripping it with another application and see if you get the same results, some freeware stuff doesn't do well, some does.

I'd start there. If the second software does a better job, then you have your culprit.

I know many people reject this method but I've never had a sync issue using it:

Hook up the DVD player to your camera/deck/convertor via analog
Connect the camera/deck/convertor to the computer via firewire
Press capture on the computer
Press Play on the DVD player

Capture to a DV-AVI file and edit with that. DV-AVI is much easier to edit with and I'll bet your sync issue will be gone. Yes, you've gone through an analog to digital conversion - I understand that. You're also starting with MPEG2 footage as well and trying to go back to MPEG2 so there's loss no matter what you do.

Darrin,

I have a problem with Windows Media Player on a couple of machines (out of 6). Most times when I quit using the player, (as in exit out) it stays active but unseen.

When this happens, Vegas will give me the "player already in use" error.

If I pull up the Windows Task Manager (CRTL+ALT+DEL), go to "Processes" and sort on "Image Name", I find "wmplayer.exe" still shows up. I select it and click on "End Process" in the lower right corner.

After I do this, I no longer get the error in Vegas, unless I run the media player again, in which case, I have to repeat the process.

This may not be your problem, but it is worth a check, just to see.

Doing a Full Concert DVD
 

I am doing a concert DVD for distribution that needs replication at a facility, would you set your dvda to burn the master files to a disc? Or use DVDA to give them a dvd-r of great quality to replicate?

www.capturemotiondvd.com

The duplication facility you are working with should be able to answer this question fully.

For one firm's reccomendation see: http://www.discmakers.com/film/prepa.../preparing.asp

Multiple volume levels on a single clip
 

Is there a way in Vegas 5 to adjust the volume level on a single clip where it starts out at full volume and then slopes down to about halfway or so and then slopes back up to full volume by the end of the clip?

Do you know how to add a volume envelope to the audio track?

Select the track with the clip.
Press the "V" (for volume) key.
This inserts a volume envelope.
To do you what you're asking requires 3 envelope points that can be inserted to the volume envelope by double clicking, or by right clicking the envelope point. Drag the envelope points/nodes up or down to suit your needs.

Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking to do.

Vegas HD preview problem
 

I have a very strange problem:

I capture my (HDV) files with Cineform Connect HD and after that I import them in Vegas 6.0d. so far, no problem.

When I put them on the timeline and play them: no problem either. But when I load them into the trimmer and try to play them, the weirdest thing happens: after a few seconds of playing, it jumps back to a position before that and it continues playing from there. That goed over and over and over again. I can not watch any HDV-clip from beginning to end in the trimmer: it ALWAYS starts looping somewhere in the middle.

Did anyone else ever encouter this problem? It's nothing obvious like set markers or anything, but it is incredibly annoying as you can imagine. I only have this problem when playing the intermediate HD files. SD-files are no problem. I haven't tried original m2t's, but it wouldn't solve the problem anyway...

I hope I don't have to wait for sony 7 to have this fixed....

Help Setting Up External Monitor
 

After successfully capturing an hdv.m2t clip and rendering the timeline, I’m unable to view the clip to an HD external monitor for editing. As this clip only requires cuts, I want to keep the editing process as simple as possible. Although the final product will be 4.3 DVD, I want to create a HD Master for possible future use, so all editing will be performed in original aspect ratio.

Setting up VEGAS:
In PROPERTIES, I’m selecting HDV 1080-60i template.
Under OPTIONS/PREFERENCES/PREVIEW DEVICE,
Device:
OHCI Compilant IEEE 1394/DV
Details:
Hot pluggable device
Device unavailable

Saving the rendered file, I’m able to view it perfectly (on the external monitor) using the VLC media player, so it doesn’t appear to be a Windows issue. I’ve tried “Print Video to HDV tape”, but there’s no video signal out to my FX-1 when I play the timeline.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Ben Hardy
H & G Recorded Productions

The key in the above is "Device unavailable". Is the FX-1 connected in HDV mode? If yes, change it to DV mode and try it again. Then it should work OK.

Bumb... I'm curious too. Is it possible to have media play/show in an area separate from the screen than the button that's making it happen?

DVDA finds Invalid data in Vegas MPEG File?
 

I hate to keep whining about the problems I'm having, but another one is that DVDA has lately been quiting at various points in writing the VOB file, with the message that it encountered invalid data.
It has done this on three different projects, ranging in length from eleven minutes (the latest one) to 2 hours. All my projects are rendered as same-name MPEG-2 and AC3 files in Vegas, and that's what I bring into DVDA. I"ve rendered the two files directly from the Veg file timeline, and I've also tried rendering an avi then rendering MPEG-2 and AC3 files from that. Same result. I've tired constant bit rate and variable bit rate rendering.

If I render an MPEG-2 with audio, I can create a no-frills DVD easily with TMPGEnc DVD Author, and that's my workaround.

Has anyone else ever encountered this problem with DVDA?

Justin

You explained it much better than me!!!

Ian