No "codec" is actually used during capture. Think of it as a file transfer from the camera to the hard drive. Codecs come into play when you start playing and editing the files.

Thinking about making the move...
 

I'm an old Mediastudio fella. But I've grown weary of their fascination with bugs. I can't build a system that satisfies their strict requirements and my current editor even bought a premade system to see if it would make any difference, to no avail. Still having problems.

Never had problems with our cameras, though. Always bought Sony. I figure this to be a sign.

Vegas, here we come!

Yep, it'll hold up just fine. Everything you learn for VMS is applicable to the full version, only there are a few things the full version makes easier. For instance, the full version offers a one-button/one image color pass, where the VMS version requires we do it "the old" way, which is one additional step. But overall, 100% of the tools, techniques, and workflows are applicable.

You'll never look back ;-). Been there. Vegas is so much more stable and feature rich.
Happy editing,
Randy

The simple answer:

A- Capture the same footage into both programs, apply some effect like flip (or broadcast safe in another test), master the footage onto two tapes.
Capture both tapes into one editing system and see if the video levels are different.
If the video levels between both programs are the same, this indicates that the video levels are just being displayed with different brightness.

Or feed the same footage from both systems into your preview monitor (i.e. one via S-video, the other via composite). The video levels should match.

B- If quality control is critical, then get an external hardware waveform monitor + vectorscope. Make sure the input type matches your deck. A hardware waveform monitor + vectorscope will be the most accurate, as it is not prone to setup error or confusion. The waveform monitor + vectorscope in FCP and Vegas are both wacky and can be setup improperly.


---

The Vegas Video scopes settings:

This stuff is more confusing that it should be.

Studio RGB: Check this box if using a codec that operates in studioRGB color space. If using the default codec (vegas DV codec), then check this.

7.5 IRE setup: Your preference.

If this is checked, proper digital black level will be at "7.5".
If unchecked, proper digital black level will be at "0". This will affect the composite display in the waveform display, and how the chroma levels are displayed in the vectorscope. For consistency with FCP, you can uncheck this setting.

2- The confusing logic behind's Vegas' video scopes settings is this:

The scopes are designed to emulate a traditional analog hardware waveform monitor + vectorscope.

When converting from digital (i.e. DV) to analog, one of two things can happen:
A- Proper digital black level (Y'=16) goes to 7.5 IRE. This is the way things should be done for NTSC (everywhere except for Japan, and for PAL).
B- Proper digital black level (Y'=16) goes to 0.0 IRE. The majority of DV equipment does this.
Most North American NTSC equipment expects setup at 7.5 IRE, so this is wrong.

Vegas can be set to emulate either scenario.

3- In an all digital workflow, this stuff doesn't matter too much. As long as you maintain proper digital levels, you are good. Since you never convert digital-->analog, whether your equipment does 7.5 or 0.0 IRE doesn't matter.

To make sure your digital levels are correct, take a look at the Vegas Video scopes setting.
There are four possible combinations of settings- this affects where proper digital level should be on the waveform display.
Studio RGB: This setting needs to match the particular codec you will be using. For DVD (via DVD architect, or mainconcept MPEG2 encode straight out of Vegas) and DV (with the SONY DV codec), the right setting is studioRGB checked.

7.5 IRE setup: Once the setting above is set properly, this setting determines where proper digital black level will show up. If this setting is checked, your shadows should kiss 7.5 on the waveform display.
If the setting is unchecked, your shadows should kiss 0 on the waveform display.

Vegas is fairly twisted because there are 4 different possible combinations, and it never tells you what the current settings are (until you look in the settings).

Is this the software for me??
 

I want to get this software: Vegas 6 + DVD Upgrade from Vegas 5 and DVD Architect 2 , but do I need to have the Vegas 5 before I can get the Vegas 6??? If so, I may go with the Vegas Movie Maker ($100) compared to the expensive version. My question is does Vegas Movie Maker convert 4:6 to 16:9 when I use my guides with my XL1S?? Also, does it have the 24p conversion??
Thanks for any info.
Dean

is there anyway to change the DV footage from a sony handycam to look more professional? with a video effect.

stupid question cause its probably impossible.
like how film companys like dimension take old kung fu movies, and make them look 1000 x's better then the chinese version. they must use some kind of filter

Welcome to Vegas. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

HDV Capture and Time Code
 

(also posted on Sony Forum)
As has been noted previously, when capturing HDV with the internal capture app in Vegas, Time Code on the captured clip always starts from Zero, no matter where in the tape you start. This means that unless the whole tape is captured from the beginning, the time code in the clip in Vegas does not match the original camera T/C.

BUT,

I've just done a capture starting mid-tape (using Z1 camera), and although afterwards the captured T/C did start at Zero as described above, I noticed that during capture, the actual Camera TimeCode was being accurately displayed in the Internal Capture window, bottom right hand corner, the left of the two time code read outs.

This means that Vegas IS indeed able to read the correct time code when starting mid-tape, but for some reason it doesn't transfer it to the clip thumbnails, as it does with DV.

I hope this can be sorted in the next update.

different Vegas versions comapred
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/pro...FeatureID=8357


upgrade link
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/sho...ory.asp?id=111

thanks Don for the info.
I didn't see where the vegas movie maker could convert 60p to 24p....do you know if this has it? I also wanted to make sure that I could modify color timing and give it some "film look" effects.

Saving Trimmed Video
 

Very impresssed with Vegas but is there a straightforward way of saving a selected region of a video clip to disk in the Trimmer Window? If I only will ever need 30secs of a five minute file, in the previous program I used, it was simple to save this trimmed section as a file allowing the deletion of the never to be needed 900MB or so (in this example). Have searched help and manuals to no avail and would appreciate advice.

Yes, Vegas Movie Studio can convert to 24p. I haven't tested it against the full version to know if there is a difference in algorithms, but it does indeed, do 24p. Just for giggles, I recently did a 2 hour project in VMS Platinum to see if I could. It was all 24p from 50i HDV.

No. You can make a subclip, but this always references the original. The easiest method, and VERY fast, is to set a region, and render that region to a new track. This is one area I wish Vegas could improve, allowing a subclip to be actual, not virtual.

VASST Absolute Vegas training DVD samples are up on the VASST site here: http://www.vasst.com/coming_soon.htm. What do you think?
Randy

thanks for the info guys...i appreciate it.
Dean

Thanks for quick answer Douglas, I will stop looking. Would be great if sub-clips could be saved as files.

Vegas Render Tutorials
 

Where on the net I can find good tutorials for quality MPEG rendering inside Vegas, (templates, bitrates,....) some tips and tricks for faster rendering....
Regards.

Wedding Effects
 

Where I can download free wedding video effects, like flying baloons,explosions, moving stars, moving hearts, 3D text like "Our Wedding", "Just Married" or something to put on Vegas timeline in alpha channel.
Regards.

www.jetdv.com-Edward Troxels site for Vegas and DVDA- register then goto>Newsletter Archives>Volume 1 Number 7 has a Bitrate chart.
You should take a look at ALL of the newsletters, there's a wealth of information.

Don

Vol 1 #7 gets into many MPEG2 rendering details and Vol 4 #1 talks about going from Vegas to DVDA to build a DVD.

Well, I know a few sources for that type of clip but none that are free.

I just ordered Vegas movie studio deluxe - I got it for $89 !!
Thanks
Dean

i am a new vegas user too, and i cant tell you that you will love it

Convert two mono tracks into one stereo track
 

I have two mono tracks which I would like to convert into one standard stereo track.

Is there a way to do this in Vegas?

I am using Vegas 6.0(b) at this time. I will upgrade to 6.0(d) as soon as possible.

Background: I recorded a concert last night using a Sound Devices 744T. I recorded four separate tracks into one polyphonic broadcast wave file.

I used "BWF Manager" utility from Fostex to separate the one polyphonic file into four separate mono tracks. This utility will not separate four tracks into 2 stereo tracks, which I want.

Put one on track 1 and pan it left
Put another on track 2 and pan it right
Render to a new WAV file

That should do it for you.

You "cant" tell us you'll love it? Or you "can" tell us you'll love it???

Dear Edward,

Thank you very much.

You certainly are a wealth of knowledge. Your solution worked great!

ohhh, now its ok
i am a new vegas user too, and i can tell you that you will love it

Will these external HHDs work well with Vegas 6?
 

Hi gang,

It's clear Vegas will run nicely on a decent (read: "modestly priced) laptop.

So. Can you edit with an external HDD connected by USB 2.0?

Or is FW the preferred method of editing with external drives?

Here are a couple of examples I'm considering.

Example #1: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=TC3J-2048

Example #2: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=TC3J-2066

Well. What do y'all think?

Thank you for your time.

sincerely,


ian

I haven't looked at those links, but it should work fine. I've done editing work
on an external harddisk without problems. I would however use the USB2 interface instead of Firewire, this to ensure no problems between the harddisk and the camera when you capture / preview / playback (as I had).

I have been using an acomdata 250GB firewire drive to capture video to Vegas from my DVX100a by plugging the camcorder into the drive and the drive into the computer. Works like a charm, no problems or dropped frames. My computer is an Asus p4p800 deluxe with a P4 2.4C cpu. I am using the onboard firewire controller. Mark

I have an external drive that I've connected via USB and Firewire. I use it firewire for normal usage (USB was when connecting to another machine). I go computer --> firewire --> hard drive --> firewire --> deck. With this setup, I can capture from the deck to the external drive.

Edward: that's the exact same setup that caused problems with my Maxtor drive and a Canon XL1S. Any reason you are using firewire instead of USB2?

I've heard that setup does not work well with some cameras - seems to be especially true with Canon. It has worked great with my deck, though, so I saw now reason to go USB.

I picked firewire over USB because firewire needs less system resources (i.e. cpu power) than USB. Plus, it simply worked the way I expected it to work. Capture, print to tape, external preview... all have worked great with my Panasonic AG-DV2000 deck connected piggy-back to the drive.

Amen.
 

Amen. I did, we all did. You will love it. Darryl

The tradeoff with quality and bitrate is heavily dependant on the type of footage you are encoding.. You cannot simply say 8000kbps is good for all things..

If you have a rock band on stage with lots of lights fading up and down and erratic movement i would say 9000kbps + is required to get it looking good. Even then i would be interested to see how it may look on newer TVs which are unforgiving with artifacts..

But if you have 2 hours of the clouds moving across the sky you could probably use 2000kbps and it would look exact same as 9000kbps cause nothing is changing too fast.

Workflow Rendering Problem
 

I am getting a repeated error message when trying to set up an MPEG-2 render in Vegas 6.0(d). I am hopeful that someone out there can let me know what I'm doing wrong.

Here's what I'm doing:

1. Capture native HD 720p at 24 (23.976) fps from the HD100 to Vegas;
2. Convert from the captured .m2t files to .avi files using Connect HD;
3. Insert the avi files to the video tracks and complete the edit per usual workflow in Vegas (I delete the audio tracks as audio is not necessary for this project);
4. It's render time, so I hit the "Render As... " command. I want to render to an mpeg-2 file, so I select that option in the "Save as type ..." window;
5. Oddly (at least to me) the "template" that pops up in the template window is "HDV 720-25p" - but my source material is 24p, so I hit the "Custom" button which takes me to the Custom screens. I change HDV 720-25p" to "HDV 720-24p" which then (properly, in my view) Vegas' description of the project is "Use this setting to create an HD 720-24p MPEG-2 file" - which is exactly what I want. Video rendering quality is set to "Best";
6. I then go to the Video Tab. The settings that appear here (most of which I don't even pretend to understand) are: output type (ATSC) (which I change to "MPEG-2" because that's what I want outputted) which consequently automatically changes all the variable bit rate settings to 9,800,000. The other settings in this tab are Width (1280), Height (720), Frame Rate (23.976), Aspect Ratio (16x9 Display), I-Frames (15), B-Frames (2), Profile (Main Profile), Level (High 1440 Level), Field Order (Progressive Only), Video Quality (15 on the slider);
7. I go to the audio tab and uncheck Audio;
8. I click OK, taking me back to the main rendering window. Having named the file to be saved, I click OK (hoping it will render) - but as soon as I do I get the Vegas 6 pop-up message "An error occurred while creating the media file ... The reason for the error could not be determined".

Any thoughts?

The template is ignorant of your project settings, to start with.
Second of all, how are you planning/where are you planning to author the DVD? Currently, DVDA doesn't support HD output, so it will recompress your file anyway.
You are creating (I think) another HDV file when you're choosing these options, but you're violating the specs for the stream. If you are looking for output on a DVD that can be shared with friends, you need to render to a 720 x 480 file using the NTSC 24p template. That'll give you what I believe you are looking for.

Douglas, thanks very much for your reply.

The project will never be authored to a DVD and it will be used as an MPEG-2 demo on my (and possibly other) computer and also uploading it for web access. In short, Vegas' decription of my choice of settings in the "project description" box is exactly what I want - an HD 720-24p MPEG-2 file.

I suppose that I could render the project as an .m2t file, but that would limit me in being able to burn the file to a disk and dropping it into another computer that only had Windows Media Player installed and not VLC media player or equivalent.

Please bear with me here, because I'm very new to the HD100 and editing its product in Vegas.