Again, after a long period of complete reliabilty, DVD Architect started to halt at the DVD folder preparation stage of writing the main VOB file.

The burner is not involved--I'm just trying to write the DVD folder to the hard drive.

In trying to fix this nothing works. Exactly the same symptom occurs after reseating of cable connectors and memory cards, a complete wipe and reformat of the C drive, fresh installation of XP Pro, fresh installation of Vegas and DVDA. Viruses are out of the question, this occurs before even plugging in the CAT5 cable.

Occurs with small files, large files, when using just the C drive for source and destination, when using the D drive for source and destination, and using either for source and the other for destination. Occurs with PCM audio whether I recompress to AC3 or not, and also if I bring in an accompanying AC3 rendered from Vegas.

Baffling, infuriating.

Thanks for your input - I tried the light rays but just didn't think about using one single character. Duh. I'll play around with this....

Oh. I'd missed that info the first time around. I take it you're running other apps with no problems? Sounds like one for Sony Tech Support, though I don't really feel authoritative about this.

This sounds like a software problem but it seems like you've done everything you could with reinstalls. Maybe that leaves hardware?

Is it possible that DVDA is using RAM that other apps don't? Meaning, it's using more RAM... and finding bad RAM?

Background image noise
 

We captured the video with a Sony VX2100. Set the exposure to f6.8, had plenty of lighting (softbox, couple of lowel tungstun lights, couple of 250watt photofloods, ect). What I am getting however is what appear to be like artifacts itneh background. Solid grey backdrop was used. Can I minimize this somehow?

Are you sure you had plenty of light? Perhaps you did not; can you post a screen shot? Instead of lighting for the result you want, I would recommend lighting for the contrast you want (i.e., relative level), but make it plenty bright, then darken it in post. This will give you clean shadows.

yes, you can minimize background artifacts (if you want the backfgroind to be black) with the Sony Black restore plugin

Mike Crash's Dynamic Noise Reduction plugin can work wonders. It works extremely well with the kind of chroma noise I assume you're talking about.

Sorry I can't post up a shot. It's for a client I can't disclose unfortunately.

But basically I have this video and I figured out that what I need to do is actually blur out the background a little bit. To take care of the noise/artifacts that are apparent on this backdrop. I have never used masking in Vegas 5 before, or really at all. Is there a way I can cut the guy out and just apply effects to the background? How do I do that?

Thanks so much.

Jarrod, I must have been posting when you were. Thanks for the link. That plugin works out great.

Unable to capture DV/DVCAM with HDV camcorder on Vegas?
 

I have a Mini DV tape with recorded SD DV footage on it, but I can't seem to capture the video. The tape is a Sony Excellence tape, but I'm not sure if the footage was shot in DVCAM or DV. I am trying to capture through my Sony HVR-A1U camera. I've tried both using HDV Split 0.75, but that doesn't seem to work for DVCAM/DV footage, and also the Sony Vegas DV capture program. The Sony program says, "The device 'Microsoft AV/C Tape Subunit Device' could not be opened. Please make sure that it is turned on and is not being used by another application or user."

What does this mean? I am not connected to any network and my camera is on and put onto the Edit/Play mode. How can I capture my footage? Thanks.

Specs for the camera claim HDV/DVCAM/DV record and playback so my (never used one before) guess is that there's a playback menu option setting somewhere that you're missing.

Playing back is fine. The problem is capturing it into my computer (digitizing it).

Are you trying to capture using the Internal (HDV) capture app instead of the External (DV)? This is another guess as I don't have an HDV camcorder yet.

No, like I said in my first post, I was using the DV capture program.

Thanks again Seth -- great info in your post. I downloaded WM encoder -- yes many more options. Off to test, test, test, now!