Ok, got it!

I went through this exercise a while back to fix differences between Combustion & Vegas. Having changed everything to widescreen I forgot to setup my templates to use the right codec (and forgot how to change it!), but all sorted now!

Why the difference in levels though ? is 16-235 generally used for NTSC and 0-255 for PAL? Why/when would you use one over the other?

Hi Edward,
Thanks for the info. I think I will go ahead and purchase the "enveloped" version instead :-)

It Won't save templates when printing to tape
 

Now when I print to tape, and click the custom button, I can set all the correct parameters for the codec I want etc, but when I click ok, it goes back to the template screen and selects NTSC template, and doesn;t appear to have saved the one I just created.

It all worked for normal rendering and for pre-rendering, but not for printing to tape.

Looking for a decent "old movie" projector flicker
 

Not too impressed with the one that comes with
Vegas, in Film Effects. Looking for something more steady and rythmic.
Anyone know of any plugins, other than the one with
Magic Bullet?

DV records video as Y' Cb Cr.
The Y' is the luma component, which approximates brightness. Think of it as black and white. Cb and Cr handle color.

The legal range for 8bit Y' values is 16-235. Maximum black is at 16, maximum white at 235. The rest is dedicated for over/undershoot of the signal, and 1 of the codes (0) is reserved for something else (sync pulses I think).

So that's where the 16-235 comes from.

Both PAL and NTSC are like this. To be more correct, digital video formats for PAL and NTSC markets are like this (PAL and NTSC are analog video encoding schemes, and not digital formats).

2- The DV codecs mentioned need to convert from Y' Cb Cr to RGB.

Going with 16-235:

Helps to avoid rounding error on the conversion back to Y' Cb Cr.

Some DV cameras record stuff in the 235-255 range (referred to as "superwhites). They provide an additional 0.3+ stops of exposure. The material has the video knee applied to it, which compromises hue/saturation to provide additional highlight detail / stops of exposure.
A codec that decodes to 0-255 will clip this information right off the bat.

Lets you put superwhites and superblacks onto tape... i.e. if you want to record SMPTE color bars properly.

Going with 0-255:
These are the proper levels for display on a computer monitor. Computer monitors see black level at 0 (not 16), and white level at 255 (not 235). DV decoded to studio RGB will look wrong on a computer monitor.

Is easier to code filters for. Many filters are coded to work in 0-255, even many of Vegas' filters.


I hope that answers your questions Declan. My preference is to stick with the default Sony DV codec.

How about the "Damaged Goods" video clips. There's a review in Vol 4, #1 of my newsletters. Here's the link to the product: http://uvtvproductions.com/damaged.html

New Flip Video Plug-in
 

Hi Everyone,

I recently noticed that the image flipping capability built-in to Vegas' Track Motion is very slow at simple vertical and horizontal image flipping. Image flipping is a nice thing to have right inside Vegas for those people using 35mm SLR lens adapters on video cameras. The source footage will be both vertically and horizontally flipped, so you need some way to get it unflipped. You can do this outside of Vegas with VirtualDub, for example, but that requires an additional render to new .avi files.

I wanted a way to do it seemlessly right inside Vegas, with virtually real-time playback. So I wrote a simple flip plugin that does this. It allows you to flip the video vertically and/or horizontally.

On a reasonably fast computer with SD footage, playback should be real-time, and it shouldn't affect playback of HD footage too greatly.

Here's an example using 29.97fps (60i) DV source footage on my P4 2.8GHz machine:

Applying vertical and horizontal flip with Sony's Pan/Crop or Track Motion causes playback to drop to 13-14 frames per second.

Using this new plug-in with vertical and horizontal flip, playback stays virtually right at 29.97 frames per second.

You can get it here:

http://www.mirkwood.com/vegas/flip

Please let me know if you use it!

Thanks!
Adam Woodworth

Sony Vegas Movie Studio ????'s
 

I have just started using the Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD and I have a couple of questions.

My Equipment is as follows.

CAMERA
Sony HDR-FX1

Computer.
Dell 350 Workstation
Windows XP Professional
3Ghz processor.
1 Meg of ram
(2) 36 gig SCSI hard drives. One for programs and the other for the footage.
Firewire card.
On board sound

Presently the only editing I will be doing will be in the DV format in the 4:3 ratio.


1. Is there any ability to color balance the footage using the color bars to balance to the camera at the time of transfer? i.e create a split screen and color balance.

2. I want to output the final edit to a DVD. The manual only mentions approved devices, but I cannot find a list anywhere in the manual or online for that matter, that gives any specifications about approved or suggested DVD burners.

I am going to assume that it would need to be firewire compliant, but is there anything else it should have or do?

3. The Dell is set up for dual monitors. Will the Sony Vegas Movie Studio program support dual monitors?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

New 6.0d iPod output working fine
 

After struggling with various shareware that was difficult and buggy, I'm glad to say that the new MainConcept AVC/AAC codec included in the 6.0d release works GREAT for iPod output. (use the iPod template.)

10 minutes later my son had his latest video project on his iPod, all working and rendering just as Vegas should.

Have you tried using the horizontal/vertical flip in the pan/crop tool?

EDIT: Yes, you said that. Missed it. Sorry.

This plug is real-time. In the Pan/Crop, and Track Motion tools, it's not realtime on playback, because of the way the scaling is optimized in Vegas.
Therefore, the plug is very, very useful.

I don't have a video iPod, but I was wondering if you cut the bit rate in half for audio and video from the default template, would it still play fine on the iPod (albeit at lower quality). So, that'd be 64 kbps audio and 256 kpbs video. Care to give it a shot and let me know? Thing is, I'd like to start posting video clips to the web, but 512 video + 128 audio makes for some file sizes that are larger than I'd like to host.

Vegas output to DV tape
 

I am new to Vegas, and am ordering guide books and registering for an instructional course, but I have a question the the almost-useless "Quick Start guide " doesn't answer. I would like to output many of my final projects to DV tape, but that doesn't seem to be an option in the guide. What is the best way to do this ?

Tools/Print to DV tape is the easiest/most efficient method.

Well, I've rendered the test - now if I can only get my son to hold still while I borrow the iPod for a few minutes... hope to report on this soon.

It should work fine. I've rendered lower resolution files like this and they play fine on my iPod. But those weren't rendered out of Vegas. I'll give this a try too, as I'd be interested to see the results. Let us know how your tests turn out Seth.

Hey Ed,

I'm not sure this works with Vegas 6. Do you know for sure?

Upgrade timing question
 

Sony is offering $125 off if you spend $500 so I could upgrade from MS Platinum to Vegas plus DVD for $450. That's the best deal I've seen in the couple of years I've been watching it. My dilemma is I think there could be some major HDV upgrades in the next version of Vegas. I still have a couple of dv projects to finish before I start on my first major HDV project so I'm in no big rush. Of course I have no idea when the next version of Vegas will come out or what will be in it. So is anybody else thinking about this or have some helpful insight to guide a hesitant and confused person? Thanks,

Mark

quality of preview on secondary display...
 

Whenever I view a project on my secondary display, whether it's lcd #2 or the tv, the quality is directly affected by the size of the preview window in Vegas 6. Is this normal? It's a PITA to keep resizing the preview window just to get a decent external preview quality...
Thanks for any advice.
Vin

is your preview window set to "preview (auto)"? you can set it to "best (auto)" but i'm not sure how smooth it would run in an external monitor.

Vegas Prediction
 

I think the trend will be to native HDV editing. Premiere Pro 2.0 has it, and despite what some are postulating, in actual use I find it working pretty decently. Pinnacle Studio 10 Plus ( a consumer editor) is also going native HDV. It has some bugs still, but has the promise of fast rendering, because it only actually rerenders edited area of a clip. You would think Sony, a dedicated champion of HDV, would be working that way with Vegas--- they do own that outfit, right ?

It is a dilemna. I upgraded to from Premiere 6.5 to Pro 1.51, only to have Pro 2.0 come out a month later. Ended up paying $200 for each upgrade.

Follow up: I know Vegas does .m2t native edits, but I have heard a lot of complaints.

Neil- No matter what I set the preview window to, the preview in either external monitor will only improve when I enlarge the preview window in Vegas itself. I thought this might be a normal thing--does it happen to you?

for whatever reason the larger the preview screen the more it stutters even in "preview" quality-so for rough editing I leave the screen small and on "preview auto" then for finish edit and color work I use an external monitor and it seems to work better but for really fine stuff, I'll render a small clip to AVI and run it thru the external monitor just to double check it.
Don

The latest version update info indicates it's now compatible with Vegas 6.

Thanks Ed


I will check the new version out

Animation, 3D Animation, and still pixel size?
 

1. I have been creating simple Flash animations for my video presentations at 720x480 pixels (output from flash at everything max) but after rendereing (at best) the animations become somewhat blocky and jittery (I edit the original pics in photoshop or Real Draw, export them as transparent ...? oops forgot the name..., then move them around in Flash). Is this blockyness/flickering normal? Can I possibly get a clean and nice animation? (maybe doubling the size of the original flash animation?)

2. And... exactly what size pixel screen size should I use for stills and animation programs to import into vegas?

3. Does anyone have a recommendation for an animation and or 3d animator for a resonable price the works well with Vegas. I am not looking to get heavily into it but it is nice to throw in some simple, fun and cool little animations here and there.

Thanks

Have you tried this (from Vegas help):

Reduce interlace flicker
(video only)
This switch can be useful in cases where the source material didn't originate as video and contains extremely high spatial or temporal frequencies.

When you watch the rendered (interlaced) output on video of this sort of media, you may see flickering or crawling edges if this switch is not applied

Enable this switch when using imported images that were not created using a video camera (such as photographs) or when using generated media or text.

Dual Layer in Sony DVD Architect 2.0
 

Is their anyway to burn onto a dual Layer disc using Sony Dvd Architect?

Dual layer support was added in DVDA 3. You might be able to prepare a larger size disc in DVDA 2 and then use Nero to burn it. Not sure how the layer splitting will work in that case, though.

Don-Thanks for the response. It's not really a problem with choppiness, it's the resolution. Should've made that clear. When I switch to Best-Full preview setting it clears up just fine (thanks, Ed). It was having it in Auto mode that was giving me the problem, although I like your editing solution to this also.
Vin

DVD Architecture: Crazy, Part 2
 

NOTE: I deleted my initial post because I've since been running various tests to correct certain problems. Some things I've cleared up, other things I haven't. I posted in panic mode earlier and just babbled; if certain problems persist I'll update later in a hopefully coherent manner.

Thank you. :D

Output file doesn't match preview
 

Hi all,

I'm doing some track motion and cropping in Vegas, and I can't figure out why my rendered file doesn't match the preview in vegas. I don't want the 5 shots overlapping. I'm sure it's simple, but it's got me stumped. Any thoughts?

http://img132.imagevenue.com/img.php...50_Preview.jpg

http://img128.imagevenue.com/img.php...956_Output.JPG

Thanks,

Steve

Ahem, please ignore this waste of pixel. I changed my project properties to widescreen, and hey presto...

Why does this happen:

My DVD Arch 2.0 program stops responding when I click on "Make DVD."; even after reinstallation. I get this error message: SzM Modname: hungapp. Is that enough to figure it out?

I have two other DVD apps on the hard drive (one is Sony); I also have a Sony external burner.

This is exasperating. Any insight welcomed!

half-bitrate test results
 

FINALLY pried the device out of my son's hands. Had to tell him I'd burn him a DVD with his latest projects...

I halved the video and audio bitrates - works fine on the video iPod and file size went from about 31MB to 13MB (for a 7:21 file).

Played it over the good monitors and couldn't hear any difference nor see any difference on the iPod screen.

FYI.

Good man, great news! Thanks for running that test. Well, it's safe to say for me at least, that 6.0d is worth it for this feature alone. I was sick of rendering out to avi and then importing/exporting from Quicktime. THANKS!!!

It gets better.

I have 2.0 installed on another computer, and while it previews a mpeg2 video beautifully, and goes through the whole burning process without an apparent hitch, I had a repeat of the same problem I had yesterday--the menu images and the audio don't appear when I play the disc. Only the video does. Why?

Removing 'head shine'
 

Howdy...

I have some video that is very well lit other than a nasty shine on the head and face of some of the talent, due to some oily skin.

Anyone have any good suggestions for getting rid of the shine without negitively affecting the contrast and brightness of the video?

Thanks,

- Ben

Ah! Just read your "other" post!

Hiyah Ben!

Well I did this for a chum here, but it was a shine on some polished fireplace. Could be a similar remedy - LOL!

No promises on the results, but if you wish, send me a "still" and I'll concoct a VEG for you.

Grazie