Thanks for the response John. I have always been happy with the results using the DVDA templates but I thought I might be missing out on a bit of extra quality. I'll stick with the DVDA templates. Many thanks for the advice.

You could always select them all in the file system and drag them all back onto the timeline and print to tape. As long as you don't have the overlap option enabled in the preferences, they will just line up perfectly on the timeline for you.

~jr

How to push/pull exposure in Vegas 7?
 

I recently shoot a Black and White 16mm Reversal type film, but overexposed by almost one and one half (1.5) f-stops. Now, I know the photo lab can pull the exposure a bit, but I was told that overexposure blows out details, but that it's still workable. What I want to do instead of paying the extra costs of pulling at the lab, I just want to process the film normally, then transfer to a Mini DV tape, which I will then bring into Vegas 7.

In Vegas, I hope to bring down the exposure as much as possible to "good" exposure, then increase the contrast. This will work well stylistically for the story of my project I think, but how exactly do I use Vegas to pull (and push) or otherwise compensate for over (and under) exposed shots. And how do I use Vegas to increase contrast?

Thanks.

As you know, in DVland once the hihgs are gone they are gone-unlike film which you can sometimes bring back in a bit. None the less, I would start with the LEVELS FX and adjust on a production monitor not the computer screen to get the exposure where you want it. That will help a little with the contrast but get the exposure right first. Then you can adjust contrast with either the Brightness and Contrast control (start with a ZERO default and move the contrast from there - don't use one of the presets) OR you can use 2ndary color correction and use GAMMA and GAIN to get the contrast moved around a bit.
You can also use that for exposure adjustment but I prefer Levels.

Don

7c, lots o' Cineform HDV, crashes - HELP
 

Boy, Vegas has always worked great for me but I'm hoping some
people can help give me some info regarding my current problem.

I've currently got a Vegas 7c project that has about 12 hours of
Cineform HDV footage captured for it. About an hour of it is on
the timeline. This is a mix of 720-30p and 1080-60i in a 720p
HDV project.

Vegas 7c is just not stable for me with this project.
Lock ups with error messages, freezing and
having to be shut down from task manager and even just
completely vanishing. I uninstalled and went back to 7b but no change.

I'm thinking Vegas is just choking on all the Cineform
files. If I click around between clips real fast Vegas just croaks. If I do the same with my DV project no problems, even if I click around with a project that only has a few mixed clips of 720p & 1080i Cineform there are no problems.

Does anyone have any experience working with around 10
hours of Cineform? Anyone think it's the mix of 720p & 1080i
that's killing me? Should I try working with this media in smaller batches?

Would appreciate hugely any experience or info, Thanks a ton.

Thanks John!

I was having one of those projects where nothing seemed to be going smoothly and I was glad to be finally done with it! Then I saw the missing themes and backgrounds and I didn't think it through.

You were right on the mark. I wasn't viewing a menu page. Duh.

Dave

Where are these tools? Levels, gamma, contrast, exposure?

look in video FX...try Sony HSL, Sony Levels, Sony Curves, Sony Contrast and Brightness

If you have overexposed your film you need to spend the extra money for the "pull processing" because once the film is processed normally the highlights are gone, they can not be brought back with Vegas (or any other NLE). The film must be processed to save that highlight detail.

Duane

I'd try uninstalling Vegas AND any version of Cineform Connect you may have installed (including codecs). Reinstall the version of Connect that you captured that footage in, then reinstall Vegas 7b. It sounds very much that it is related to changes in the Cineform codec.

-Pasty

undo script Help!
 

working on a project and wanted to try a script. well it started the script but didn't finish it because it couldn't find the directory folder, or something like that. So what I need to know is there some way to undo that partially ran script? Guess I should have tried it on a test veg file because now my whole video is zoomed in. I did not save the project and tried the undo then closed it out and reopened but it was still the same. I started a fresh project transfered in all my video and it was the same as the project that got messed up. the video is zoomed in, I can go to track motion and squeeze the box and I can see the rest of the video but I really don't want to be doing that to every project I start. The script was thumbnailAtmaker. If anyone can shed some light on this I would really appreciate it.

I have the same problem with 7.0c and the new Cinaform Connect 3.3. when I have lifted 3 or 5 events from the explorer to the timeline, Vegas suddenly shuts down. No mather howe many events are on the timline. It shuts down as it starts to render the soundtrack. I can edit the events without problem. Xp is up to date, everything reinstalled. Still shut down.

Had no probems with 7.0b and Connect 3.23, so I will try to go back to older versions. Just hope I dont need to recapture 7 hours of HDV.

Do anyone have this working?

Removed Vegas 7.0c and Connect 3.3, and reinstalled Vegas 7.0b.
Opend my project, Vegas rerenderd the audiofiles, and now it works again.
Not tried to reinstall Connect 3.23 yet. Could it be an audio render problem from Connect 3.3 into Vegas 7.0c?

Thanks Arnt - that sure sounds like what I am seeing here. Moving a bunch of Cineform files into either the media manager or project media folders has caused Vegas to just go "poof". I will go back to the previous version of Cineform and see how things go. I'm wondering if it can be audio related as well - Sometimes when Vegas locks up I will get a rapidly repeating chunk of audio, sounds like a buzz and it won't stop till a kill Vegas with Task Manager.

FYI - system specs:

mobo ASUS a8n SLI-Premium (latest bios)
AMD X2 4800
2 gigs ram
Windows XP on 2 Raptor drive Raid 0
most media on 4 Raptor drive raid 0
some media on a P-ATA drive
Echo Gina sound card
2 Nvidia 6800GT video cards

I think pull processing would be the way to go here. In Vegas, you can't fix anything that's been clipped. And for other things, making too big a change will bring out noise.

2- Vegas can be useful for playing around with the look of your film though. The color curves offers the most control.

Some useful presets in the link below if I remember correctly:
http://www.glennchan.info/Proofs/for...ry-presets.veg

Information about levels in Vegas:
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?i...0-90d2f8de9fc1

Making s-shaped color curves increase contrast. If your target output is DVD, use a calibrated TV or broadcast monitor to view your work.

3- The brightness and contrast filter increase contrast by clipping; color curves is a little better here.

Based on re-reading this, I'm betting your preview is now on "Best (Full)". Change the preview mode back to "Preview (Auto)" and all will be fine again. It's one of the options above the preview screen.

Output to YouTube
 

Does anyone here use YouTube?

YouTube says

But Vegas doesn't output to Divx or Xvid. Be really nice if it did... hint hint Sony. So what's the second best option?

EDIT: Mods you can delete this, I found this thread, sorry
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...hlight=youtube

Hi Burk

Got mail from David Taylor at CineForm, and they will look into it.

My specs
Asus P5WD2 Premium
Intel Pentium D 3.0
2 gig ram
Updated XP on IDE
Video on sATA 2x500 Raid 0
Matrox Parhelia APVe
M-audio ext soundcard

So it should not be the hardware.

when i have short projects i usually change the min bit rate to 5,000,000 ( from 192k) and use 2 pass ...

Thanks a bunch Arnt - you really pointed me in the right direction I think!

Did an uninstall of Connect HD (including the codec)
Uninstalled Vegas 7c.
Shut down computer….wait a couple minutes…
Re-install Vegas 7c.

Open problem project and try and reproduce crash – can’t seem to get it to croak. My framerates have fallen to around the 19-20s but I can live with it. In the interest of time and to make sure I’m solid I’m going to just work with this config for a while and see how it goes. So far things look solid.

From what I understand The Cineform guys can’t reproduce the crash, I have an open support ticket with em’ and David (from Cineform) and the Sony forum admin have replied to my post on the Sony Forums. Really appreciate your help here David and Forum admin.

Thanks so much for all the help everyone!

Try Ctrl+Z. I test scripts all the time and Ctrl+Z (or Edit > Undo) usually undoes whatever the script did. If not, Edward is probably on the right track. The script set your preview to full to take snapshots for the thumbnails. Just set it back again.

~jr

I have loaded wmv files with reasonable results. Just ensure that the file size is as close to the maximum allowed as possible (100MB)

You can download these codecs and use them from Vegas. I've been testing the various mpeg4/divx codecs recently.

Yesterday I created an mp4 file with the mainconcept mp4 codec. I believe that one came with the most recent Vegas 6 download.

Also, you might want to download and use vitrualdub. Many excellent plugins are available for that program that make it a nice compliment to Vegas. Essentially, I am exporting lossless AVI files from Vegas, then de-interlacing and adjusting frame rate in virtualdub (29.97 to 24 IVTC).

Best of luck.

Thanks JR and ET. What I ended up doing was reinstalling because I was needing to get some work done right away. JR, I did hit CTL Z and it never undid it. I'll remember to check that next time ET.

I have the divx create 6 bundle and it doesn't show up as a render option for me in Vegas.

Thanks for the tip on the WMV's though.

YouTube
 

I was wondering the some thing since I just created a 3Mbps WMV and uploaded all 29MB of it. The results are less than steller and if Vegas could render to Divx / XVid that would be great.

So is it possible to create a new render option and if so, where & how?

jason

I downloaded and installed both Xvid and Divx 5.x onto my PC. When I go to render, and I chose AVI, I have both of those codecs, and the other's I've downloaded as options.

Edit:

Whoops. I have to retract this. I selected these codecs but couldn't output. Back to the drawing board.

Another basic question about inserts
 

Since I see that basic questions are well-tolerated here, I feel safe in asking this...I've heard that Vegas is a little "different" from the other editing programs. That attracts my attention. So what I'd like to know is how an insert edit is done in Vegas and whether it's any different from, say, FCP? Personally, I'd love an insert that's done by parking the B-roll clip on another track above the main video A-roll track so that you always see what was there before the insert, what's the "activated" track and what's the source of the nat sound audio. That way, to change an "in" point and "out" point could be as simple as sliding the insert clip to the right or left. Am I only dreaming or is an acceptable way to do inserts in Vegas?

No, you're not dreaming. If you do it the way you described, an insert edit (cuts only) is exactly what would happen.
The topmost track always has priority over anything below it.
The audio is whatever is playing on the timeline. If you had 10 tracks of continuous audio, you'd hear all 10 simultaneously.
In your example, if the insert had background sound, you could either leave it alone or add a volume envelope (search the help menu for this feature) to raise or lower the volume of the track(s) at the time of the edit.

Wow, that is really nice. Now here's the follow-up--is that feature (top track priority) unique to Vegas? Or is that the way "cuts-only inserts" are handled in pretty much all the other editing programs?
One other question--just exactly what makes Vegas "different" from the rest of the herd? Is it the interface?
These questions are coming from someone who's edited on ScreenPlay, an editing "appliance," for the past 6 years or so. I'm pretty much a 'cuts and a couple audio tracks' sort of person, doing docs and event stuff. I'm so visually oriented that I like to be able to "see" everything I'm working with. Otherwise, out of sight, out of mind. (For example, as I recall from FCP, when you drop an insert onto the time line, the replaced video isn't "seen" anymore. I don't like that.) I like "seeing" as many clip icons in the bin as possible, I like being able to "see" all the video and audio tracks I'm laying down. Does Vegas sound like a nice "fit" for me or am I inviting aggrevation and a steep learning curve?

SNAFU, frankly
 

I'm the owner of a Decklink Extreme PCIe, and have done some research in the area

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/for...ssageID=489694

Replacing Audio in Vegas Timeline
 

Hope I am in the right area here.
I have footage that I added sound to in the audio track. Between each narration that I added, I put a blank 2 second audio clip to give it some break so I did not sound like I was rambling. Which I do anyways, but then relized that 2 seconds was not enough. So I created a 4 second blank audio clip to replace all the 2 second ones in the timline.
The problem I am having is, when I select all the events in timeline (The Blank 2 sec clips) and replace with the 4 sec one, the name in the project media file changes to the new 4 sec clip, but the time in the audio track still plays 2 seconds. Is there some type of adjustment button that allows the new 4 second clip to adjust the audio timeline or something to allow the full 4 seconds to play.

Dang, hope not confusing everyone here...

thanks
ted W

To my understanding you'd need a script to do this. When you replace the material, Vegas shows only the length of the take it was originally. Material is there, but only 2 secs worth is shown.

Thanks
 

So then when I compile it should pick up the 4 sec breaks I put in. When I play back at this point, the 4 seconds is not there when I listen to it.

Do you think I should somehow go in and replace each one individually ?

Thanks
Ted W

Besides Vegas, I've only used one other NLE (dpsVelocity) so I can't say whether they all have this same feature (top track priority).

Since your needs appear to be somewhat limited, you may want to look at Vegas Movie Studio+DVD. It's only 4 tracks of video and 4 tracks of audio. More info (and a comparison to the full version of Vegas) is at http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/Pro...FeatureID=8357

If you feel that you need the extras provided by Vegas (unlimited tracks, scripting, 5.1 surround sound, advanced colour correction, etc.), there's an upgrade path available.

(30 day?) trial versions for both are available. With the help of other folks here, I don't think your learning curve will be steep at all. I use Vegas at the community college I work for and I can have students up and running with only a few hours of instruction.

I've always found Vegas users to be very helpful and more than willing to help other users so feel free to ask any more questions you may have.
Good luck with your decision.

You can do it any way you like in FCP...the insert shot can live on a track above the "base" track, or you can insert it on the same track as the other cuts.

Putting the insert shot on the same track as the others facilitates faster editing because you can then use ripple/slip tools to trim thing to your liking in one step...not the multiple steps it would take if you're using 2 tracks.

But honestly, whatever works for you is what you should do :-)

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a laptop setup for Vegas 7.
I have a Sony 1.8 Centrino from last year Single chip. Pretty darn slow at rendering etc. HD. I have a 2.5 duo mac from Jan of 2005. It is fast.
Would a duo core Sony Vaio 2 mhz make a significant difference? I am not sure but I think the RAM limit is 2 Gigs. on the Sony and 3gigs on the new Mac laptops

Again--wow, I appreciate getting this sort of "inside" look at Vegas. And thanks for telling me about the various offerings besides the full-blown suite.

Regarding the inability to ripple when an insert is parked on another track, is that the case for both Vegas and FCP? I think I'd accept the extra work over not seeing the video. But on the other hand, in a long program with many many inserts, that could become a nightmare after awhile.

Error Loading Vegas 7
 

Whenever I attempt to load my .veg file, it gets to 6% of opening the project, freezes for a while, and then I get an error message indicating: "vegas70.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

The only thing I can pinpoint is that it happened after I downloaded a trial version of Cineform ConnectHD 3.3. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Vegas. I also reverted back to the Cineform 3.01 codec. Nothing seems to work.

I can open Vegas and save a new .veg file and reopen it without any problem. The .veg file I am having problems with is 1,441KB and includes roughly 90 minutes of edited footage. The majority is Cineform converted files. A few clips were the actual m2t files.

I also tried to restore windows back to a previous date. It went through everything, rebooted, and then indicated that I was unable to revert to that previous saved date. Now it only allows me to reboot back to today.

Any suggestions?

mixing HDVs and render to DVD
 

OK... I need to mix & edit HDV 1080i clips (Sony FX1) with 720-30p clips (JVC HD100) to obtain a NTSC-widescreen (normal) DVD.

Is it just drop the clips on my timeline and work with them ?
What settings are recomended for my working project ? Can be NTSC-widescreen as the final mpeg2 render will be, or Do I have to set properties to any HDV template (720-30p maybe in this case) and then render to mpeg2-widescreen ?
What if I want 24p final DVD (I know how with DV clips, but not sure with HDV) ?

Regards