Hi. I have had issues that sound similar to yours, when burning DVDs from MPEG2s rendered in Vegas. I'm using Roxio DVD builder to burn the DVDs, but I also get the super washed out blacks. So far, still have not solved that problem. My blacks also tend to go noticably green.

Seems like everything looks right if I watch the MPEG 2 on my computer monitor, but once I have a burned DVD, that's where the problem is, I guess. I haven't tried watching a burned DVD on my computer, I don't think. I've just been living with it, so far.

Sorry Peter - This was quoted by Willy (genius that he was) - It is the first two lines of "Ode" by Arthur O'Shaugnessy. Another is "movers and shakers" - Dont know if that was original at the time but it's this first place I saw it. It's one of my favorite pieces.

Yeah I've been getting pretty fed up with Vegas lately. It's beginning to feel like a child's NLE. The video in the preview looks beautiful then when I render it to 24p (2-3pulldown) or various other templates I get a slew of visual problems like creases, flickering lines, wavy interlace artifacts, over saturation, bad motion, loss of sharpness, changed aspect ratio, flipped upside down footage, etc.
I've used VLC and Windows Media Players.
I'm about ready to give up on this. Can anyone suggest a Windows NLE that can handle HDV better?

Track motion/picture in picture
 

Hi

I need to create a PIP effect - the Vegas manual suggests using track motion - which is easy enough - but this means the entire track has that motion property which I realise isn't a problem if there's nothing on the track but it seems a bit of a waste of a track.

Is there somthing I'm missing?

Thanx

Ian

if the picture inset doesn't need to follow something on the screen, just scale down a second video layer and let it buck...maybe a border under it or something to separate.

You can always keyframe track motion to only affect that area. Or you can use Pan/Crop to create the PIP.

It may be that the DVD encoder wants to see computerRGB color space instead of studioRGB. If that is the case, feeding it studioRGB will make the image look washed out / lacking in saturation (blacks too grey, white too grey).

You might want to see what the setting is on the encoder side. Maybe it's thinking the footage is upper field first?

Just a shot in the dark there.

How are you viewing the burned DVDs? How was the monitor calibrated? (If it was calibrated.)
Sometimes DVD players will have incorrect levels.
Their video levels can also differ from your DV camera/device... so if you calibrated the monitor to your DV camera, the DVD player images may look wrong.

Maybe, but I've watched my stuff on multiple plain old TVs, and it's always those same issues.

Another small update (now at version 5.0.1) has just been released. It fixes a couple of minor issues that were recently discovered. You can get the update from http://www.jetdv.com/excalibur and clicking on the "Download" button. 5.0.1 can be safely installed over 5.0.0.

The only thing that I can see would be the capture to an internal drive that is also running your Windows OS. I capture everything directly to an external 160 Gig 7200 rpm firewire drive and the only time I am have a dropped frame issue is when other programs are running. Be sure that only the capture utility is running and everything else is closed.

Vegas quirks
 

Hello all,

I've been a long time Premiere user (over 5 years) and I've recently switched to Vegas 6.0d. There are many little things about the software that I'm having trouble finding in the manual and help files that I can EASILY do it Premiere and other quirks that Vegas does that makes no sense...here goes:

Trimming and playback:
When I playback my video on the trimmer or my timeline, I'm accustomed to the playback marker to stop at the same spot I hit STOP. For example, I'm playing back 2 minutes of a 10 minute video. Once I've seen enough and I hit the spacebar to stop the playback at 2 minutes, the marker goes back to where I started playback, it doesn't jump to the moment I stoped it in!

WHY?! It's annoying. Is there a setting I can change to adjust that?

I also wish there was a RAZOR tool. That's a very handy tool and makes cutting SO much easier.

I also dislike how a lot of the easily accesible tools such as audio fading and video fading are a little more hidden than they need to be.

My biggest gripe is the the playback thing.

Other than these minor issues, the program is AWESOME. I don't regret the switch. It's definately going to take some time to get use to, but it's a great prog. Overall, I'm very happy with it.

First of all, welcome to the great world of Vegas.
Now to deal with your minor issues.

Options - Preferences - General
Make Spacebar and F12 Play/Pause instead of Play/Stop

There is. It's the 'S' key (for Split).

What could be easier than moving the cursor up to the top left or right corner of the clip (till it changes to a 1/4 circle shape) and dragging it?

BTW, I highly recommend downloading Edward Troxel's excellent series of newsletters (pdf format) at http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/forum/vie...623c02dabff541

Mike

***edit: HAH! Mike K. types faster...***

Use the "enter" key instead of the space bar for that behaviour. Not sure if you can flip the space bar to "pause" instead of "stop", but I seem to remember a pref for this?

Position the cursor appropriately and hit the "s" key (for "split"). I do a lot of timeline editing, it's very handy and largely equivalent to a razor tool. There are various interactions having to do with which tracks or events/clips have focus (are highlighted).

I also wish there was a RAZOR tool. That's a very handy tool and makes cutting SO much easier.

In addition to opacity and volume envelopes, which I assume you're using, there are *very* handy tools available for fadeups and fadedowns of audio and video. Access them by hovering over the upper-right corner of a clip on the timeline. Look for your cursor to display a little quarter-circle, when it does, click and drag to the left. Voila, a fadeout of audio or video. Same same for a fade-in at the other end of the event. Look closely at the teeny yellow window that appears while you click and drag, it will display the frames and seconds of your fade.

Me too! Enjoy...

I found the shortcuts sticky in this forum very helpful.

In particular:
CRTL + ALT over a fade/transition will do roll editing.
ALT over stuff does slip editing.

Thanks guys!

It's funny 'cause I looked over that option so many times and never bothered to check it.

This is great! It's definately better than a Razor tool. Saves the trouble of having to activate it first then cut with your mouse. Just position and S!

As for the opacity and volume controls, I was talking about Automation, rather than just clicking and dragging the edge of an event. Yes, the click and drag tool is VERY useful for fade in/outs, but NOT for fades in between the even (without having to split). Took me a while to figure out I had to select "Show Automation Controls" in order to do fades in between the beginning and end of the same event.

Thanks again for the clarification guys, this definately makes the experience a WHOLE lot funner AND easier.

::thumbs up to vegas::

basic vegas questions
 

I'm interested in vegas for use with an HD100.

1) which version works? 5.0?

2) can hdv be edited natively in vegas with success? (I don't do a lot of fx)

3) which intermediary codecs work in vegas? What's the advantage to an intermediary codec?

4) why do they call it vegas anyway?

Network rendering problem...
 

Ok, I've searched the forum and read all the network rendering threads so as not to be redundant, but I can't seem to figure out my little problem. I've used the NRS before, and successfully, but after reinstalling Win XP and Vegas on my second machine, I can't seem to get it working again. I've set up file mappings, machine number two is listed as ready in the renderer tab window, I start the render (to wmv, btw), it says it's starting, the project file appears in my final output folder, machine two's hdd light starts flickering, NRS on machine two says it's starting, machine one says it's queued and ready, but it doesn't go past that point. No error messages or anything.
Any ideas?
Vin

It may be that WMV can't be network rendered? Have you tried rendering to something else (i.e. DV, Sony YUV) and then rendering a WMV out of that?

yeah, Glenn, simplified it down to a 20 sec avi clip, no fx, directly in one of the shared folders, not even in a subfolder, NRS on both pc's state ready, then starting....but it doesn't go from there. I'm stymied. I'm not even trying to do distributed networking, just to have machine 2 render while I continue to edit. Not too much to ask, right?

hmm..it could be due to other applications. Anyway I tried HDV spilt & it worked perfectly.

I was having a similar problem with Vegas Movie Studio, but also with HDV Split. No problem with the Premiere Pro capture. I upgraded to latest HD Split version (0.75, I think) and that all disappeared. Haven't really tried to resolve problem in Vegas capture as the others are working.

Here's some tips:

1. Each computer should have a unique name
2. Your network needs a name
3. Make sure the DNS suffix name is the same on each computer

Can audio only be captured in Vegas 5
 

I have a new notebook and DV Rack that I will be capturing video and audio with my one Sony VX2100. However, I have a very old Sony notebook that only has 10 gigs of storage space but was the first Sony notebook to give a fire wire port. I would like to capture only the audio (for backup and possable drop outs on the tape capture) from the other camera as I have like 7 2 hour concerts to film and would never be able to capture the video with that and not sure if that 350 MHZ ancient notebook would be able to keep up with the video as slow as it is. I do know that Adobe Premiere has an option to capture audio only but can only find the option to NOT capture audio for Sony Vegas 5.0. Is there an option in Sony Vegas to capture only the audio an to ignore the video. I can not use Adobe Premiere 1.5 because it will only install on Windows XP and the only systems I can install on that old Sony notebook is Windows 98 which it came with and Windows 2000 unless I bought yet another addition of Windows XP. I already have 4 Window XP's running on 4 different computers and do not want to buy another one under any circumstance.

I do have Sound Forge 7.0 proffessional but did not find an option in it to capure audio using a firewire connection connected to a camera.

You can do audio only straight to the timeline using the analog inputs.

If you want to capture audio only via firewire, you might want to take a look at Scenalyzer Live.

I was just coming back to add that when I saw your post. I can not use any of the analog connections from my cameras as they are connected to Sound Devices Mix pres. I have to use the camera's firewire connection to capture the audio.

Adobe does capture audio only just fine if you are running Windows XP via firewire. I am not sure why this option is not in Sony Vegas but it should be.

It *may* not be because Vegas, by itself, is a multi-track recorder. It's MUCH more powerful than capturing firewire. However, that doesn't help in your situation.

Definitely take a look at Scenalyzer Live. It's very inexpensive, can capture audio only, and has many other interesting features.

Capturing issue.
 

I'm trying to connect an Optura 20 to my PC and use Vegas 6 to capture. When I connect the camera via firewire, Windows make the *bing* recognize noise, but when the window asking what I want to do with the device comes up, there are no options in the window. Also, when I go to Vegas to capture, it says there is no device connected. I don't know what the issue is. I do not believe that it is the cable, since it connects to Windows. I need some help QUICKLY, time is short. Thanks.

I'll take a stab at this....

1) which version works? 5.0? ...go with the latest 6.0d

2) can hdv be edited natively in vegas with success? (I don't do a lot of fx)
...yes but slowly. Use the cineform intermediate and you should be able to work just fine.
3) which intermediary codecs work in vegas? What's the advantage to an intermediary codec? ...some like using intermediates from Gearshift etc. I use the cineform that comes with Vegas and so far so good....

4) why do they call it vegas anyway? ....hmmm what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas....

I'm sure others can weight in on this...

Not trying to change the intent of this thread but I didn't think Vegas5 would install to windows 98 either.

I haven't tried it yet but I do have a licensed copy of Windows 2000 proffessional if it doesn't.

Hi,

I do not want to rain on your parade BUT you need to have a look at this thread which I started:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=64559

Make sure that you read it in its entirety - especially the last one or two pages. I make this statement because the thread sort of 'changed direction' at some point but the main issue is the fact that synchronizing audio and video captured from two different sources (even two different cameras) over a long period i.e. in your case 2 hours (like mine) is problematic and I still have not found an automated working solution.

Vegas 5 will capture audio only - as many simultaneous audio tracks as you want!

I'm not sure if it will install and work on Windows '98 (the system requirements for Vegas 5 was - at least - Windows 2000). However - hazarding a guess - I would imagine that as long as you are able to install the required Microsoft software and drivers e.g. DirectX 9.0c and Microsoft .NET Framework it should work (but do not hold me to this). The best thing to do is just try to install it - if it does not work properly - uninstall it - the uninstall application works perfectly and does not leave 'stuff' hanging around after uninstallation. The software is exremely well written!

Regards,

Dale.

set your soudncard to record "what you hear" most have this feature and will record anytign that is fed throuh the mixer...

from here open up vidcap and Forge
Prepare new file @ 48khz stereo, set forge to record via remote (the remote panel will pop up).. and youll see Vidcap under it..
hit record on Forge remote.. it will blink blnk blink.. lol
now hit play on Vidcap.. (not record)
sit back and wait til capture is compete..

voila.. digital audio capture with no video.. If u go analogue, the SN ratio could be pretty ugly...

Oh, and this only works with full duplex soundcards though (ie record and playback at once)

good luck

Audio adjust question
 

When adjusting the audio with FX using nodes it all is great, however, if I move the time line the nodes do not move. There must be a way or I am doing something wrong. HELP

Is "Lock Envelopes to Events" turned on?

yeah same here too. Since HDV spilt is workin fine I'll stick with that. I was considering connect HD but now, I guess I will put it on hold for the moment.

Probably not. I will check that..
Thanks

I don't know why they call it Vegas, but it did start as an audio only editor. I think it was first developed by Sony, not like the other multimedia tools Sony purchased when they snagged Sonic Foundry. And their sound editor was called "Acid." So, go figure.

Sony didn't get their hands on it until they acquired Sonic Foundry.

Blanced XLR on Vegas
 

When I capture a clip and drop it in the time line will there be two audio tracks?? One for each mic used on the XLR?? Just wondering how the work flow will be in Vegas, I have yet to venture the audio portion of video.

Only if you recorded two tracks - either two individual mic'd sources or one stereo source.

Jeff