Bill:

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I am taking original 4:3 footage (from a TRV-900) and converting it to a 16:9 look. I am working with an older DV tape. I now have a Sony FX-1 and really like the 16:9 look. So, I want to duplicate the 16:9 look with my TRV-900 tape but realize I can really only put black bars on the top and bottom of the TRV-900 footage. This is fine. I'll pan up or down to make sure I'm tracking the subject matter.

I guess what I am doing is correct? I've turned off "match aspect" on each clip and have set the crop on each clip to a 16:9 aspect. When I render, I am planning on using the DVD NTSC setting.

-- Keith

Thanks Edward. This first choice you gave me works and is what I have been use to in the past. The second way, I'd have to try while reading your post to follow it and really understand it. The last choice - scripting - I don't have a clue on yet. My Vegas demo expires in 6 days, so thanks for the help and "Happy New Year" to you.


If you're dragging multiple events to the timeline, setting the transition length Options - Preferences - Editing tab will apply to all items you drag.

As you overlap items, Vegas 6 will show you the overlap amount (if you have that turned on). Then you can just drag to the desired length. It may help to zoom in on the timeline or move the event using the 1 and 3 keys on the numeric keypad.

You could always put your cursor at the end of the fade (i.e. end of the left event), double-click the left of the three timecodes at the bottom, type in -2:00 to move the cursor backwards 2 seconds (smpte timeline), and then drag the right event to the cursor.

And probably the easiest way is to use a script to overlap the exact amount you wish. This can be applied to a single event or a BUNCH of events at once.
__________________

dude, u can electronically convert 4:3 to 16:9

do a search in the forums, there are quite afew questions about this and i KNOW ive answered this about 4 times in as many months.. lol

black and white video/mpeg 2 problem
 

I have footage that was shot in black & white using an xl2 custom preset I made. I edited in Vegas (5), and everything looked great. I rendered out using the 24p widescreen mpeg2 default (with some minor VBR changes).
After burning the disk in dvda, the image is much too dark, and the blacks seem crushed.

Should I do something special when rendering for black and white mpegs?
Thanks,

Jeff.

What are you using to monitor on before the process? After the burn?

Gary

Aye... thanks for the quick response!

Everything with my computer monitor; I just have a regular flat panel display. I previewed the dvd on several different players/monitors, to the same results. It is definitely a problem occurring during the render, as all the footage is fine up until that point.

In Vegas, do an EXTERNAL preview to an external monitor. I think you'll see that the colors are off. You can't go by the computer screen to accurately determine what the final result will be on a TV. Get it right on an external monitor preview and the render should be fine.

You know, that would be an awesome solution…

If I had an external monitor.


Okay… this is my fault (I am obviously not very adept at communicating), so please bear with me.

It isn’t a color problem perse, nor a minor correction quibble … The blacks are overpowering… the image is irrevocably altered to a degree that affects detail… and this is clearly a result of the mpeg rendering, as evidenced by the very large dissention between the source material, renderings on other formats, and the final product... all present on the same monitor.

I was kind of hoping that this was a common problem, and would be resolved by a simple “click this setting”… but I guess not. Sigh.

Well, I did some research into this and it seems that all the DVD/HDD Recorders I investigated that have DV-IN are only able to accept input from a camera and not directly from a PC's DV-OUT signal. Shame.

Despite that, I went ahead and bought a Lite-On LVW-5045 HDD+DVD Recorder in the January sales. It has DV-IN and a 160gb HDD and for regular TV recording I am, so far, impressed ( I read many mixed reviews of this machine, but for the price I thought it was worth a gamble).

Back to the original issue, ie printing from Vegas direct to the recorder, can anyone give me any idea of what sort of degradation I'd see if I was to take the DV-OUT signal from the pc and run it through a Hollywood DV-Bridge (ie to convert it to analogue) and into the composite ins on the recorder?

Thanks.

Ian . . .

mine doesn't work with the source files rendering into DV Proxy via gearshift.

Ian,

I have a DVD/HDD recorder (Toshiba XS32), but I've never tried to do a Print to Tape (PTT) from the timeline to it.

A few comments/opinions:

1. What you are wanting to do it seems is keep a DVD (only) as the archive of your edited work. That's OK, but if you ever want to re-edit, convert it to another format, etc, you would be better off with PTT copy in DV format. Editing MPEG2 directly doesn't work so well in Vegas.

2. Do you have a DVD writer on your PC? If so, why not use that to create your DVD? You could either author a DVD, or if this is just for archiving, simply encode a MPEG file and write it as a data file to a DVD. This does take longer though, which maybe is why you are looking at the DVD/HDD recorder.

3. You could try doing a PTT to your camcorder without a tape in it, and the camcorder connected to the DVD/HDD recorder.

Just some thoughts. They way I work is - if it is something I have edited in Vegas, then I always print a master back to DV tape as well as create a DVD from the PC. Where I use the DVD/HDD recorder is when I want a quick solution and don't need any fancy edits - for this the DVD/HDD recorder is great. I go from the DV tape straight to the DVD/HDD recorder, do some simple edits, and burn a DVD in minutes.

Mark

I just saw your post in the other thread. I’m going to respond there since you gave more information about the problem in that thread.

~jr

Gfx card doesn't affect rendering - but does it affect Preview?
 

See above. :)

Hi Mark, thanks for the comments.

In response:

1. Absolutely, although I was thinking mainly of those projects that I consider unlikely to need further work, say those that I haven't reviewed for a couple of years. I would, of course, still have the original DV tapes and the original veg files so if I really did need to go back and re-work something I could do that with relative ease. Aside from the quality reduction, I wasn't aware that editing mpeg2 is problematic in Vegas.

2. Certainly do! And that's what I'm doing now. I was hoping to free up the PC from such duties in cases where I may need to burn, say, three or four copies of the same project. Of course I can always burn one copy on the PC, copy it to the HDD recorder, then burn off further DVD's from there. But that introduces a further step, which I was trying to avoid. You're quite right with your suggestion, though. I was really trying to see how I could fit this piece of kit into my workflow.

3. Indeed, although that would imply analogue out of the cam into the HDD recorder. That was really my line of reasoning when I mentioned passing the signal through the DV Bridge (ie not using the cam at all). If I could keep it out of the analogue domain and solely digital that would obviously be more desirable but it looks like that isn't possible at the moment. Never mind, eh?!

The editing functions on the 5045 are basic to say the least - limited to splitting and merging. Fine for taking out advert breaks or topping and tailing some footage destined for a simple DVD but cumbersome for anything else. Having said that, I think the technology is great and I'm already looking forward to seeing where it developes in the future (like PC integration!!).

Cheers.

Ian . . .

Well I don't have any experience with PC's or Vegas, but I use a DVD recorder all the time with a firewire connection to my Mac and FCP. It works just fine. I have been manually controlling the recorder (push the record button), never tried to let the computer do it although that might work.

You have raised the various limitations related to this WRT to archiving your work, but I find the DVD recorder very handy when I just want to copy footage that doesn't need any fancy menus. And I get very good quality when recording in HQ mode (1 hour per disk).

I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work under Vegas as well as under FCP.

Hi Boyd,

I suspect it may be a restriction of the DVD/HDD recorder I have (LiteOn 5045) in that I can't do what you can! I've tried recording manually but to no avail. Vegas seems to want to take control. Period.

I've posted a message up on a forum for LiteOn users and maybe something will turn up there.

Cheers!

Ian . . .

What's your output going to be? DVD? If so, you *may* be better off working in a Widescreen project (once you crop, it will stretch to fill at default settings) and rendering out as a Widescreen DVD. Then, the DVD player will still display it correctly on 4:3 TVs (assuming it's set that way; most are by default), and it will aslo be a true anamorphic DVD for widescreen TVs and will display correctly on those, too.

maybe I was unclear. That was an actual question. Does video card affect preview quality in any way (choppiness, etc)?

No it does not.

animation files to DVD
 

I've been asked by our animation department to burn completed student projects to DVD for a showing. If they did the anims at standard NTSC rate, this wouldn't be a problem but they prefer to do their work at 24 fps (possibly widescreen too).
I know about importing frames as sequences but where do I go from there?
Is it just a case of setting the Vegas (6.0C BTW) properties to the film rate of 24.000 Film (as opposed to 23.97 IVTC) and then rendering that out?
I'm also assuming that the "Allow pulldown removal when opening 24p DV" option in Preferences should be disabled as this is a true 24p project.
Any other gotchas I should be aware of?
Thanks.

Mike

You can render them out from a 24p Vegas timeline with a DVD Architect 24p template.

Then, you can make a 24p DVD with DVDA.

gain level: rendering mono to stereo audio files in Vegas
 

This time a more theoretical question on audio gain levels in Vegas (5d):

When I render a mono Audio test signal (1 kHz) with a constant gain of -0.1 db (almost clipping) to a stereo audio file, each if the two resulting channels show the same (i.e. unaltered!) gain of -0,1 dB.

Doing the same in Digidesign ProTools they will have only -3.1 dB each, so each channel has been decreased by 3 dB.

Which gain level is "correct"?
Is there any audio specification to this?

Smartrendering PCM AUDIO files in Vegas
 

And another one:
Does Vegas smartrender unaltered PCM audio files? It should, but audio properties - unlike video properties - does not give an answer.

Re-sample or reduce interlace flicker?
 

OK, in my rendered project a 3-D title with motion looks quite stuttery, not too smooth, and the edges are not smooth. It was rendered as an avi from Bluff titler and added to the project. Which should I use and will it help much, or should I have done something else.
Thanks in advance,
Colin Rayner

Capturing Live Video and (Separate) Audio
 

Hey Guys,

I have no problem capturing live video, but I would like to learn more about capturing live multi-track audio. I plan to shoot a few music concerts this summer/fall and I would like to be able to record at least 8 tracks at a time. I recently purchased the Mackie Onyx 1212 mixer with firewire card (will receive on Tues.) to interface with my laptop or desktop. I have a few questions:

1. Has anyone used a Mackie Onyx series mixer with Vegas? If so, how compatible is this hardware with Vegas?

2. Can I capture live video and perform a live multi-track recording at the same time in Vegas (on the same computer)?

3. (After thought) Would I have been better off getting and Echo Layla 3G?Fire 8 and combine this with a 12-16 Channel analog mixer? BTW I don't plan to do surround sound at this time (maybe in the future).

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

I don't have experience with the setup that you have. However, I have used an ADAT for multitrack archival recording of live performances (musical theater) with good results.

The ADAT is patched into a 24 channel mixer. Usually I will use 16-20 channels. Performers are using wireless lavs. Pit orchestra is using wired balanced lines.

I'll record each lead on a separate track and record the rest of the performers mixed down to one or two tracks. For the pit I'll record the lead piano on one track and mixdown the rest of the pit to a separate track.

In post I can dump all eight tracks simultaneously to my computer using an optical connection from the ADAT to a EMU 1818 sound card. I will import all eight tracks into Cubase or Premiere and mixdown the tracks to one master track for the video.

I then will sync the video to the mixed down master audio track in Premiere. Even for a one hour tape (actually 57 minutes) there is no drift between the audio and video once synced.

Hope this helps,
Barry Oppenheim

Vegas 1080p60 WMV Dual-core decode test...
 

All you guys with a Dual-Core PC, this will definitily test your computer to see if it stacks up to what it promises. Watch the video, Encoded in 1080p60, and if the transision between the blue lines is smooth, then no frames were dropped! The video was made with Vegas so don't move this thread.

note: Ignore the text on screen and the slight video game screenshot, all you guys are focused on is seeing if your Dual-core computer drops frames in 1080p60.

http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd3/...itialsetup.wmv

Edit: I don't mean for you to play the video in Vegas to test performance, I just want you to play the video in Windows Media Player.

ok heres my setup on this machine..

albatron mobo ,
LGA 775 P4 extreme with 800mhz fsb, 2mb cache
1 gb corsair DDR ram at 400mhz
Radeon 9000 pro

ran smooth as silk while rendering an AC3 file
also had another instance of Vegas open (i edit while i render) as well as this thread..
so for a single HT cpu, it works fine..
Oh and i downloaded teh file to C drive, not one of my 7 media drives.. lol

BUT what i wanna know is where the hell did u get the playstation 3 from??

It's a simulation created by Vegas. I didn't actually capture via HDMI.

There an option in vegas to disable DV device control, make sure this is unchecked and it might work manually.

DVDA & motion blur problem...
 

Just finished a 1st birthday project which incorporated lots of stills and video (ala minidisks from a Sony dvd camcorder). Everything looks perfect until I author it all with DVDArch 3.0c. Then I get a motion blur/flicker kind of effect on just a few of the mpg2 movies. Checked the info on the ones with problems, they are all interlaced (kept them that way) mpg2 files that seem completely compatible. Except for these few vids, the project is perfect. Any ideas at all? Thanks.
Vin

find the clips in explorer and right click on them and play media or play in WMP do they look ok? if so try deleting them from the DVDA project then re enter them and render and burn over again

Vince

Field order is probably the wrong way around for those files.. You wont notice this on a PC screen only a TV screen.

Lift just the shadows
 

What would be the best way to lighten shadows
that are too dark, without brightening the
highs and mids?

Many ways to do it.
Probably the best way is to use the color curves, and make a little 'bump' at the bottom.

Add a tangent point about a quarter of the way from the bottom. Do this by double clicking on the line.
Click on the tangent point to select it. Hit the up key on your keyboard to make the bump.
Play around with the handles to keep highs and mids at the same brightness.

Yeah Vince, every mpg looks fine when playing on the pc. I've already restarted the DVDA project from scratch so I've already re-added the files once, to no effect. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
Randy, I just played the finished dvd on my pc and I get the same motion problems that I have on the TV. So, no problems before authoring. Previewing the project in DVDA also looks perfect. So I'm assuming it's got something to do with the rerendering that DVDA is doing. I was hoping there was a specific setting or preference I was missing in the app.
Thanks for the response.

Nesting without laying an egg
 

As I will have up to 15 different projects which will need to be put together on the same timeline for final output to DVD, there are several questions I have regarding the whole nesting process and conserving hard drive space.

As I am working with Cineform files in Vegas 6, and capturing long files (I unchecked the box for scene detection and typically get a one 25 gig file) I would like to just save on hard drive the portions of the large file saved after split/delete editing is done. Typically, I have about one sixth of each 25gig file that remains on the timeline. As I only have about 400g of hard drive and there is a need for as much as 15 of these large files at 25 gig each, I need a "destructive" way to edit (save only the portions desired and delete the remainder from the hard drive). I assume that building a nested file is the first thing to do. Then, how to delete the other parts of the large file that are not needed. I am just a but leary of proceeding as I get high anxiety about accidentally wiping out the whole project accidentally.

BTW, the reason I use one large file and edit from there, is that in the DV (SD) world, the files are smaller and storage was not an issue. The ease of editing with one long file in making highlight sequences in my old NLE (storm edit) is just the workflow style I am used to. If there is no way to delete only part of a large file as described above, I suppose using "scene detect" during capture would at least allow deletion of many scenes without having to worry about making a project delete error.

Just for the heck of it, could someone explain the necessary process conceptually as well as walk through the steps to take. It would probably be good to walk through the nesting process as well. Thanks.

One other question. When you trim a file in the trimmer before placing it in the timeline, is the portion that was removed truly deleted? If not, is there a way to set it to automatically do this in the trimmer?

Just another Vegas convert finding his way in the VAST (VASST?) world of Vegas.
Curt

Any other ways to do it? I was hoping for
a slider that maybe just controled the lows.

The other way to do it is to run several secondary colour corrections, but that's the long way round.
Honestly, the curves is a great way to do it.

I would work with nested timelines as you mentioned, and when done, then make subclips of all of your clips and tracks. Then delete the original from the hard drive.

"When you trim a file in the trimmer before placing it in the timeline, is the portion that was removed truly deleted? If not, is there a way to set it to automatically do this in the trimmer?"
No, it is non destructive and the extra clip info is still available.

The only way to do what you ask that I know of would be to create subclips, or save the project and save clips with a bit of lead at both ends (I forget what they call this when saving).