You might want to review this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=52500

Generally speaking: Good is fine.

Excellent and in depth resource - thanks Edward.

I've rendered several small files this afternoon and still find Canopus seems to be much better than Mainconcept when I render out through Frameserver - even on Best setting through Vegas. I don't quite know why - most everyone seems to think Mainconcept works excellently.

My renders just look too fuzzy with Mainconcept.

Why is MPG2 render so dark?
 

I just did a test render on my current project. I shot it pretty dark on purpose but after rendering to mpg2 it is much darker than original or deisreable. Is there a way around this besides playing around with the brightness/gain/contrast on each event? I've never really noticed this too much before but also haven't rendered a really dark scene before.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I know some people prefer levels or color corrector filters, but I use brightness/contrast.

Any of these can be applied to the event, track, or project.

Audio Effects Tutorials tips?
 

I'd like to create the sound of a voice I recorded sound like it was being heard over an intercom. I have Vegas 6 and Sound Forge 6. Anyone know of a good way to make this effect?

Also, to make an audio track sound more distant (for example an explosion that is initially heard outside and the tail part heard from inside a room). Is there a good trick for this other than just lower the audio volume?

You might start with the Parametric EQ starting with the Phone Line preset and adjust to your liking.

Audio problem when recording voice over
 

I was doing some narration today and all of a sudden the volume of the track I was narrating on to went way up. I mean the audio track frequency levels on the track are huge and almost cover the audio track. The volume is way to high and it sounds hollow. Did I hit the wrong button? Help. Bob

The *problem* (if you want to call it that) with using B/C instead of color correction tools, is that you're raising the luma noise as much as the chroma, which is something most folks would like to avoid.
I'd recommend using Levels as a starter anyway. Glenn Chan has a great tutorial on this subject found on the VASST site.
Also, ALWAYS check your MPEG 2 renders on a television. If you view it in many software DVD players, the gamma is set incorrectly, or blacks set to 0 vs 16 for broadcast.

OK, now I'm thinking harder and the smoke is starting to come out... :-)

Maybe I need to do some testing with levels. Spot (or anyone), would you mind explaining a little more why B/C raises luma noise any more than levels or cc? Is the idea that we'd want to correct chrominance before or instead of touching luminance? (and isn't B/C adjusting luminance AND chrominance?)

Great info. Thank you.

Hmm ok I'm actually going to have to disagree with Spot here! :D

From what I've seen, the brightness and contrast filter (more or less) does the same thing as the levels filter. The interface is different. In my opinion, the interface in levels is a lot better.
*Nitpicky point: The Levels filter has a bug in it, which the brightness/contrast filter doesn't run into. It's when you use "input start" and "output start" at the same time.

They both do the same thing in regards to noise. At least that's what I'm seeing.

2- How are you viewing the DVD?
If it's on a computer, the video overlay settings and the DVD player software does affect your levels. So you may not be seeing your true levels.

And if you view it on a TV, that's another can of worms.

But if you make the whites peg 100 and the blacks peg 0 (which I show the process for in my levels tutorial), it should give you good results. As long as the original footage wasn't very over/underexposed.
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?i...0-90d2f8de9fc1

Hi,

I had some strange color/contrast problems when viewing DVD/MPEG2 on my computer. After a while I found the probem. In my driver for the gfx-card(Geforce 6800 in my case) - I had a tab-menu for gamma and color correction when using "overlays"(which is most often the case when viewing dvd on a computer) - Gamma was set really low and color correction was "weird" - so I hit "reset" in the interface and violá - perfect picture.

Good luck!

// Lazze

A while ago(a year or so) - I did some testing with Canopus Procoder and MC.

My results was a 100% victory using Procoder - better quality AND faster render times.

// Lazze

I should have been more clear there, I'd use curves or primary C/C for this in *most* instances, but I also nearly always start with levels. It's a left over habit from Photoshop. :-)

vegas - toshiba notebook
 

do you think that a notebook (toshiba satellite m70-113) with these specs is good enough for vegas;

PentiumM 750 (1.86GHz,533Mhz FSB,2MB L2), 512MB DDR2, 80 GB 5400 rpm, 15.4" Trubrite WXGA (1280x800), ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X700, 128 MB DDR RAM, DVD Super Multi (Double Layer) drive