Some items will be grayed out IF the proper things aren't selected. For example, you can't add a menu button if you're not on a menu. Perhaps you just don't have the proper thing selected.

I'm an idiot! I went back and tried that -- and followed directions in the help file -- and voila, it appeared.

I think I just have a case of the Mondays.

Yup, both answers were correct. I called support this morning. They gave me my license # and pointed out that I needed to activate DVD arch. and it would automatically unlock the encoder. I guess the encoder comes with DVDA. And sure enough it worked great.

Also - they pointed me to VASST for their wonderful tutorials. Which I knew about but it was all good.
Very cool.
Milt

Adding in voiceover with microphone
 

Hi,

Using Studio Platinum (Vegas 6.0 +DVD from B&H arriving tomorrow).

I am playing around with audio, and inserting a voice track with microphone. I found the track EQ, COMP, and Gate functions, really, really cool! Audio tech ministry in our church has made me familiar with this stuff. I had no idea it was in this program. What a bonus.

It seems that my added audio track includes the audio track of my video clip as well as my voiceover. I found that soloing the voiceover track while recording stops that problem. Is that the correct configuration for that goal?

Also, I seem to be getting a lot of noise in the new track, whine...high freq hum, hiss, etc... I don't get this when using Windows sound recorder, a slight hiss only from my cheap Sony hand held. I can EQ some of this excessive noise out, but it is pretty much not usable.

Is there any way to get clean audio into Vegas from a pc soundcard? Rather, from a "typical" soundcard vs a "high end" card if such exists.

Thanks in advance,

Jamie

Jumpy preview when using .tif file
 

As I preview my stills on the timeline, as it gets to one that is a large .tif file, the preview becomes jumpy, not showing every frame. Is this because the program is having a tough time previewing such a large graphics file? And if so, will this still be a problem after it is rendered?

Thanks again,

Jim

Welcome to DVinfo Jim. I think you'll need to give us a hint as to what kind of computer and what software you're using before anyone can help you out with this! If you let me know then I'll move your post to the appropriate forum where you should get more responses.

Thanks Boyd.

I'm using a Dell Latitude D800 with 512 memory and Vegas 6. I answered part of my own question. Once rendered, there was no jumpiness (it that's a word).

So I guess my next question would be...how much image quality will I lose if I convert to JPG from TIF? I assume that depends on how large the final screening medium is (from tiny browser window or theater projection screen)

I know these questions are very basic, but that is where I am right now.

Thanks again,

Jim

Hey Jim; I moved this thread to our (standard definition) Vegas forum which is the best place to ask questions like these. We also have another Vegas forum dedicated to high definition. I use Macs so I can't really help, but I'm sure others can.

yeah dude, from memory i think TIFF are running through a QT shell (i might be wrong here) and QT itelf is rather slow on the Veggie timeline, as are most stills anyway...

reason is is that these stills are being converted to DV on the fly for your preview monitoring..
rendering is always full frame unless ur harddrive fails during the render.. ive never known vegas to drop a frame at render... i could be wrong, but in my years of using it, ive never had an issue

if your ever in doubt of how a frame moves etc just highlight the area and hold cntl, and tab B, this will give u a ram render of the highlights bits and u can play that back in realtime at full frame without having to render out..

IMO with vegas as it has some issues rescaling certain images (ie if ur still image is like 4000x6000 @300 dpi) id recommend you rezize it to maybe double or triple that of your project resolution (ie average 3000x2000) and use a lower DPI as with video u only need 72dpiif u have a batch of images, u can batch convert with photoshop or pretty much any app thats out there these days...

Downconverting ur pics for the project will also speed up rendering and as u only have 512mb ram, you pagefile wont bog down. The vegas 6 pagefile management is totaly different to V5, but with 6, as soon as u start using non video files, it eats up your pagefile like pacman

As Peter alluded to, .tif files aren't all that great for editing in Vegas, because .tif files require Quicktime, so it's being translated and scaled at the same time. Batch convert your pix to .png or .tga for best results.

Media Manager reality Check please!? AWOL Push Pin?
 

I'm using MM2.1 - came with ACID Pro6 - does your PUSH pin option work on the Properties Pane fly out? I don't even HAVE a push pin?

Grazie

GRR
More fiddling about.. this is ONE thing i hate about HDV and DVCPRoHD is that you gotta convert to intermediate to get anything done efficiently.. apart from using proxies... or a Mac.... BLASPHEMY!

Exporting to Vegas 4
 

I recently copied a number of .dv files onto a DVD for a friend to edit using Vegas 4. However, he's unable to open all of them; the larger files (1 GB or more) seem to work OK, but the smaller ones won't open.

Some files transfer smooth/easy; others just choke, and we get a “cyclic redundancy error” message over and over

This is footage I've already transferred to my iMac using either iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Is there something I should be doing that I'm not?

Leigh

How do you pull still frames from the video
 

We are using Sony Studio + DVD maker and we want to pull still frames from the edited video. We do not need to make still frames in the video only to select a frame and copy it as a single frame and then save the frame to a file outside of the editing program.

These still frames would then be imported into a graphics program and converted to JPEG.

The help program in the editing software has the basics of how to copy the single frame, but not how to put it into a file outside of the edit program.

I need to do that so that the frame(s) could be copied to a file in the hard drive so I can copy them to a CD and then take the stills to a different computer for use as still images.

Any help would be appreciated.

Place the cursor over the frame you want to make a freeze frame. Change the PREVIEW to BEST FULL click on the little DISC ICON to the RIGHT TOP on the preview screen SAVE AS either JPEG or PNG direct it to where you want to save it hit SAVE and you're done.

Don

Hi Daniel,

I just instaled Vegas 6d and am having the same issue. I haven't changed and preferences or made changes to the stock install but when I drag an mp4 file from the HD1 into the timeline and then play it, I get a slow stuttering playback rate in the preview window in the bottom right.

Playback of these files in Quicktime is smooth even on full screen on a 24 incher. Can't be hardware, just built the box with AMD dual core X2 CPU with WD Raptor drives and 2GB of OCZ Ram.

I think using external applications to do conversions, etc. defeats the purpose of Vegas. Ideally, I'd like a complete workflow within this application.

Did you find resolution to your issue?

Thanks for the guidance.

We will try it tomorrow.

Vegas 6.0d very slow with Sanyo HD1 files
 

Hi Konrad-

yes, I still have the problems. I tried to disable the "Ignore 3rd party plugins", "Use Microsoft DV codec" options but to no avail.

Then, I stumbled accross a possible explanation for the sluggishness:

Right-click on the MPEG4 file in media explorer and check properties.

It should say something like "qt5.dll", located in the Vegas plug-in directory.

This is an old Quicktime codec from 2002 (?) and most likely the root-cause.

Anyway, I am currently using Jacky Yew's suggestion and it works like a charm.

Just do a batch convert of all the files, and you'll be dealing with AVI files from there on. Works like a charm and the batch conversion only takes a minute or so...

Just curious, are we losing anything (quality/info/versatilty/etc.) by converting to AVI?

I thought the benefit of Vegas was that we could work directly on the mp4 files.

I am wondering why Graham and others are not finding this issue despite the slower hardware.

MP4CAM2AVI just re-package to MPEG4 format AVI, no recompression. But AAC audio in AVI is not common, you're recommanded to convert it to PCM.

Seems this issue only affect AMD processor.

Nope, tried it on my Intel and it was just as slow...
 

while playback in QT was fine. Go figure...

Yes, Quicktime is definitely processing the .tif on the fly...no fun. So, if I am reading all your advice correctly...

I will convert my existing .tifs to pngs and since I will be zooming, I will only downsize as needed to maybe 3 x project resolution and leave the dpi alone (which is 300 - 600 depending on the still). The file sizes will still be anywhere from a 1Mb to 25Mb in size with PNG (much larger than if I went the JPG route), but 3 to 4 times smaller than TIF and do not have to worry about image quality loss if editing or waiting for Quicktime to process in preview.

Does that sound about right?

Thanks again guys,

Jim

WorkFlow
 

I have a series of amost 500 clips that I wish to put onto a variety of DVDs. Rather than rendering out all the individual clips, I'm proposing to line up all the veggie files on the timeline in an order that corresponds to the contents of that particular DVD.

In each case I'll render this out in the MPEG-2 format with the AC-3 audio file, though I don't recall whether to 'Render As' or 'Render to New Track'?

I assume to successfully load the orange markers from Vegas6d into DVDA3c I ensure the 'Save project markers in media file' is selected?

The reason I ask is because it'll save me a lot of time having to re-create all the markers in DVDA.

TIA
Neil

Can only import Flash for text animation?
 

Is this right? If I have a Flash cartoon-like animation, I cannot bring that into Vegas? I was reading both on this site and Sony's that they only support Flash for text. If that is correct, how is anyone bringing in cartoon-like animation (or whatever the correct term for this is)?

Thanks again,

Jim

Jim,
On Page 44 of the Vegas manual there is a table of file types that Vegas supports in a project. Shockwave Flash .SWF files are a type that is supported. FLV files are not listed so probably aren't supported.

png or tga are your best options, always, in Vegas, and you'll see the system run significantly faster.

Render As

and Yes - make sure the option to save markers is CHECKED.

Chroma Keying and Shadows...
 

Ok so I know how to key out the green pretty well in Vegas although it is not quite as easy as Ultra2 it seems. But generally ok. Now, can any of you recommend a way in Vegas to create shadows so the item you're keying looks like it's where you've placed it?

Open Track Motion and select the "Add Shadow" box. That'll fix you up.

Do you mean casting a shadow on the floor which matches other shadows in the room?

That can be done, but there's some work involved. You'd basically take the keyed clip, duplicate it (but put it on a track under the keyed clip you want to keep), blacken out the image (contrast, brightness, something), lower the opacity (so that it can be seen through, amount dependent on how much you want), then use 3D track motion to place it. Not quite as slick as AE or Commotion which have shadow generators, but pretty much a manual version of the same thing.

Best Format for 60 Sec Multimedia Clip
 

One of my clients wants to post a 60 second clip for advertising purposes of the footage we shot. The company ask for the following format

Sorenson 3, 240 x 180, 15fps, 168kbit/s

or

MP3 with audio at 22khz mono, 32kbit/s

2.5 megabytes, 60 seconds long

when using Vegas and selecting quicktime with Sorenson 3, where does the 168kbit/s come into play, I am not finding the field to set that?

What do most of you guys set you clips at for multimedia and what file sizes are you getting for a 60 second clip? Is anyone using Sorenson Squeeze or Canopus ProCoder?

Jump to HDV
 

ok i made the transition to HDV. Now i regret it. hehe. just kidding. anyway I have a whole bunch of footage that I digitized. Now I want to make a proxy so that I can edit the footage at a frame rate greater then 4 fps. =) however, everytime I use gearshift to make a proxy, it fills up my 400GB raid. Its about 2 hours of footage that I need to edit. I know it keeps making uncompressed AVIs which are huge. What other options do I have?

Thanks

Help - analogue to digital conversion
 

Hey –

What do you use for analogue to digital conversion? I need to transfer some old VHS tapes to digital for editing… Any product out there especially good with Vegas?

Thanks!

Canopus ADVC 50 or ADS DV Bridge are both very good products for not a lot of cash. Both offer DV output, so Vegas loves the files they spit out.

Help! Audio question (fade out)
 

Hi all. I have not used my Vegas 6 for much audio, so I am not sure how to simply fade audio on a track in the timeline. I have a song I need to fade at a certain point....Thanks

Thanks Douglas --

I was actually looking at the Canopus...

Thanks again for the info --

Several ways.
1. hover mouse over upper right corner of audio til it turns to quarter circle. Click/drag left. This creates a fade.

2. Select the audio track, then select the "V" key on your keyboard to insert audio envelope. Double click the envelope to insert nodes. Click/drag to pull the nodes down.

3. Select the "B" key on your keyboard, this shows the Master Audio Bus track. Again, select the "V" key, and then double click to insert nodes, fading it out where you wish it to fade.

There are still more methods, but these are the best, IMO

Actually - I took DSE's recommenation and used track motion on the clip that was keyed. I checked the 2D Shadow bow and a shadow is generated. Then you can move it around in the window and it will track with the keyed image - in this case the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space.

The hardest part is keyframing the shadow so that as the ship is landing the shadow starts small and grows as the spaceship touches down. It works pretty well.

Now having said that how is what you're recommending different? It seems to me to be an extra step in manually creating the shadow unless I'm missing something or is this just another way of doing the same thing? Or I guess this could be used a reflection - and that does sound like a way of doing that unless there is a check box somewhere for "reflection" like there is in Ultra.

Audio Help and Tutorial needed?
 

Can anyone recommend a good tutorial on Audio FX in Vegas? There are so many different filters and terminology that it is rather daunting. For example, I have no idea what a paragraphic EQ is vs. a regular EQ. What are the most common filters used? I am not a sound technician but would like to effect the audio track at time - i.e clean up wind noise but also understand what the heck I'm doing....tks

You might be able to suck them into your Mini DV camera and store them to tape and then capture digitally - or - some cameras have a pass through capability - that allows you to hit play on the VHS and as it is playing into your Mini DV you capture it. something like a poor man's bridge I guess.
Has anyone else tried this?