Answer 1: You can disable the media manager by unchecking a box in Vegas' preferences. The next time you start Vegas, the media manager will be unavailable. Then you can remove the media manager tab from the docking area by going into the view menu and unchecking it there as well. Bingo. No Media Manager.

Answer 2: Higher bitrates will mean higher quality, yes. Many people may not see the difference at all, but a higher bitrate means more image data and therefore inherently means higher quality. There is no downside except for bigger file size.

Answer 3: I don't shoot HDV, so I couldn't really say what a good book would be for sure. Douglas Spotted Eagle's book seems to get pretty high praise, from what I've seen.

You can certainly do it the way Kyle suggested or look for a script called "MatchAspectRatio" (or something like that).
BTW, an excellent collection of scripts for Vegas is at http://s92274348.onlinehome.us/vegas.html

Kyle, remember that only works if all images are the same original size. It's MUCH safer using a script.

Thanks I'll give the scripts a try. I appreciate your help

Hi Jarrod

Thanks for the reply. I have followed the steps you outlined a few times, rebooted etc

"Answer 1: You can disable the media manager by unchecking a box in Vegas' preferences. The next time you start Vegas, the media manager will be unavailable. Then you can remove the media manager tab from the docking area by going into the view menu and unchecking it there as well. Bingo. No Media Manager."

Once the program is running there is no Media Manager but it still tries to load the media default library when I first start Vegas 7. I may have to call Sony tech support.

This is the matchaspect script from the everything.zip collection that Mike pointed you to. http://www.firsttakestudios.com/Matchaspect.js
Just dl and copy it to the Script Menu folder of your Vegas installation. It works perfectly with Vegas 6 and 7.
Ed is right on the nose, as usual, with scripts being the safest (and easiest) way to do it-you should throw the rest of them in there while you're at it, lots of useful and time saving goodies...

Is this a good way to multi render ?
 

I want see what other people do when they want to render multiple videos types from one project.

I have been capturing in HDV 1080 and setting up my project properties as HDV then edit . Once Im done I render to these formats from the same project

1st. m2t for HDV print to tape
2nd. 720x480 mp2 for DVD
3rd. mp4 for ipod
4th either HDWMV or 720MP4 for Blueray-HDdvd down the road. I have tried 1920x1080 mp2 but the render times are huge.

Is this what other people do ? I dont want to have to re edit for each video type.

I have 2 questions
#1 For each format should I change the project settings to match what Im rendering to? I have just left the project settings as HDV.
#2 What are the 2 best formats to render that would be compatible for Blueray ? I plan on getting a PS3 and I want to be able to play my HD videos.

Thanks Joey

I'm in the same boat as you guys, but I did manage to find this video on Youtube that gives a demo of the projectmix and vegas in action. It even shows exactly how to set it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56kwxKOw-Js

What do you think?

I'm pretty excited myself.

-chopchop

Hey Jarrod, thx for helping....but I figured it out yesterday. For anyone interested, or who may have a dvx100b, if you're recording in 24p or 24pA and it just looks like regular dv instead of film - try setting the gamma and matirx to cinelike...
It's amazing that this camera can shoot in 24p and still look like regular DV if the gamma and matrix settings arent set.

Well thats my experience anyways...

Keep in mind that 24p is a frame rate, and that as such the only inherent difference between it and "regular DV" is the fact that you're getting 24 full-res images per second as opposed to 60 interlaced images per second. 24p in and of itself doesn't have any effect whatsoever on image qualities other than motion rendering. So it's not really amazing at all that the camera would give you video-like images in 24p mode if all the other settings on the camera are left in neutral positions.

When you said your 24p looked like "regular DV," I assumed you were talking about motion characteristics.

Thanks Vin. I'll give it a shot

I just found out it seems to be a spontanious problem with Vegas 7.0b.

Vegas 6.0a worked fine with all the files I used, including the video only files.

I can't re-install Vegas 6.0a because my hard drive space is only down to about 400-300MB and I can't get a new hard drive.

So I'll guess I'll just wait to see if 7.0c delivers a fix to the bug.

Not having this issue with 7b, but if your hard drive is so full as to be within 15% of capacity, this alone can generate all sorts of problems.

m2t file quality different (better) in 7 than 6?
 

Is the vegas m2t file quality different (better) in 7 than 6 (when capture)? Or... is the m2t file the same (quality) of version 7 but version 7 is making editing smoother plus lots of other tweaks?

No.
Capture is merely file transfer; Vegas does nothing to your video file on capture, it is a bit for bit copy of what your camera stored.
Vegas 7 has some optimizations that allows for faster processing and access to the CPU, but it bears no relevance to image quality.