Mixing 24p with 29.97i
 

Hello all,

I have footage that I shot at 24p and 29.97i that I want to use in the same timeline. I was wondering what is the best way to do this?

I'm using Vegas 6.0d. The 24p footage is from the XL2 and some (a big chunk of important footage) is 60i. I accidently forgot to switch back to 24p one day when filming at work so I shot A LOT of important footage at 60i (I can't believe I didn't notice the difference earlier!)

The other half of the 29.97i footage is from a JVC 1ccd mini-DV camcorder (my capture cam). I didn't shoot anything important with this cam, but I thought I'd shoot some stuff while my XL2 is sitting on a tripod filming so If I can get the footage to work with the 24p footage would be great.

Now, should I run my 29.97 footage through avisynth and create a frameserver and make my interlaced footage progressive through avisynth? That's the only solution I can think of right now and it seems like a good choice (I've done this before, but with animation and it worked great), but I'm not sure if this will work good with video.

The two options I see with avisynth is using these codes:

ChangeFPS or ConvertFPS

I don't want to AssumeFPS because I want to truly convert the footage and not interpret the footage and have it look slightly slow motion.

So, what are some of your guys' suggestions? Thanks in advance!

-R&R Entertainment

What is your 24p footage? 24p or 24p advanced?

What do you want your end result to be? Do you want the 60i footage to look like 60i or 24p?

Mixing 24p (not advanced) on a 60i (29.97) timeline is no problem; if it's 24p advanced, you probably want to bring it into a 24p timeline and then export as 24p DV with 2:3 (not 2:3:3:2) pulldown and then use that in your 60i timeline.

That's if you want the 60i footage to look like 60i. The 24p will still look like 24p.

If you want it all to look like 24p, edit it all on a 24p timeline and then render as 24p. Vegas 6 is great about converting 60i to 24p with a minimum of fuss.

Just remember, though, that fast camera movement looks fine in 60i, but when converted to 24p, it's just like having shot in 24p, so fast camera movement may produce a strobe you don't see in 60i.

Suttle pro
 

I had a list of button presets at one time for vegas but lost them. I wanted to reassign some buttons to go with UltimateS. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Jeff

There's a preset file in the Vegas install folder.

David,

My footage is 24p not, 24pA

I'd like the 60i footage to look like 24p, but it's not exactly main priority. I just want compatabilty on the timeline really. I ran a test dumping my 60i footage on my 24p timeline and rendered and it looked pretty good. Fortunate for me, the footage I have has NO movement. It's all static, so that makes things MUCH easier.

Thanks for the help David. The more I use Vegas the more I love it. Thanks again!

-Roger

Ultimate S2 comes with a prefs file for the Shuttle Pro 1 & 2. It’s in the Ultimate S2 directory (C:\Program Files\VASST\Ultimate S2). There is also a VegasKeyMap.ini file in that directory that you must load into Vegas so the mapping works properly. You do this in Options > Preferences > Keyboard > Import. As Edward pointed out Vegas has it’s own preferences in its directory. There is also a Sony Vegas 6 -- ShuttlePRO v2.mht file that will show you what the shuttle keys are mapped to.

~jr

Which version of Vegas are you using? If you are using Vegas 6, you must use the External Video Capture option. The internal one is for HDV and the external is for DV. I assume the Optura 20 is DV (which begs the question, why are you asking this in the HDV forum?)

~jr

No there will be one stereo track from your camera. If you have recorded two mono mics on that stereo track you can split them out very easily in Vegas. Just duplicate the audio event on another track, then highlight one track's events and right-click and select Channels > Left Only. Then do the same on the other track's events but select Channels > Right Only. You will now have two mono representations of your original stereo track to process and mix independently on separate tracks.

~jr

Actually the sound editor is called Sound Forge. ACID is a looped based music composition tool. It does not edit sound, it composes music. There used to be Vegas Pro which was audio only, then Vegas Audio and Vegas Video, and finally just Vegas. All of these tools came from the Sonic Foundry acquisition as David pointed out.

~jr

Sorry John, You're right about the stereo track. Your explanation is what I meant.

Jeff

Ah, yes. That's right. Acid is the composition application. Well, weird nomenclature just the same.

Hey John, I suggest you to Wikipedia and update their article on Vegas. It doesn't give a good history on the application, or make the lineage clear. It would be pretty helpful, if you have ever had the urge to immortalize yourself on the Wiki :-)

DJ

I've been having problems recently with HDV Split, both 0.7 and 0.75. It captures video, but with lots of blocky artifacts very frequently throughout the video displaying in the preview screen, but afterwards the .m2t file only shows a few of those artifacted parts. For example, there will be one artifacted moment on the preview window every 10 seconds of video capturing, but there will only be one artifacted moment every 10 minutes of video (if that - often only 1 or 2 hours of video).

In any case, artifacted at all doesn't seem right to me. There does not appear to be artifacting when I play it on my camera, but the captured file shows it. Why and how do I fix it?

Second, bigger problem with HDV Split. It has suddenly just had some weird error and says it can't capture anymore and it has to shut down. I tried this with two different computers, same problem. I tried capturing to different drives, same problem. But if I kept rewinding the tape and trying to capture again, eventually I was able to capture the footage correctly.

But what is this glitch that keeps crashing HDV Split? I run no other apps or do anything with teh computer when capturing.

Prerender 720p @ 23.976p
 

I've noticed I can't prerender 24p at a 720p resolution. The only options are 720p at 30p or 720p at 25p? Does anyone have any info on this?

Sure you can.

Just click the "Custom . . . " button in the prerender dialogue, then go to the "Video" tap. Choose "(custom frame size)" in the "Frame size" drop-down. Then, fill in width 1280 and height 720.

dooote!...

Keyframe controller missing from event FX
 

I must be going mad! I just realized I can no longer adjust the keyframes in my generated media. The controller is still present in the Pan/Crop dialog.

I am using using version 6.0d.

But make sure the PAR is 1.000.

What do you mean, you can no longer adjust it?

No, I mean the controller has disappeared outright. I do not see it at the bottom of the event generator dialog.

Move your mouse slowly to the bottom of the dialog box. As soon as it turns into an up/down arrow, click and drag upwards. The keyframe area is resizable. You've apparently resized it to nothing.

Ed: 1, Vegas: 0.

Ed's got a couple more in the win column than just 1 . . . :)

Mainconcept properties
 

Everyone,

I just want to make sure I'm doing this right since my Mainconcept renders in Vegas were coming out seemingly worse than my Canopus renders:

I go into 'file' then 'properities' and then set the 'Full Rendering Resolution Quality' to 'BEST'. (The default had been set to 'good')

I just want to make sure this setting affects the actual render from Mainconcept within Vegas out to a DVDA file and that it is the best possible quality.

thanks

One thing to do is make sure you DO NOT pick the "default" preset. Instead, using one of the DVD Architect presets is recommended.

I totally agree Edward - the default is for the birds.

However, I posted this because when I pick the DVDA template (DVDA video stream) I noticed in file>properties the setting is set to "good" instead of "best".

I want to make sure this affects the DVDA template before I start another 4 hour render, because my DVDA video stream renders were not looking that great.

You might want to review this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=52500

Generally speaking: Good is fine.

Excellent and in depth resource - thanks Edward.

I've rendered several small files this afternoon and still find Canopus seems to be much better than Mainconcept when I render out through Frameserver - even on Best setting through Vegas. I don't quite know why - most everyone seems to think Mainconcept works excellently.

My renders just look too fuzzy with Mainconcept.

Why is MPG2 render so dark?
 

I just did a test render on my current project. I shot it pretty dark on purpose but after rendering to mpg2 it is much darker than original or deisreable. Is there a way around this besides playing around with the brightness/gain/contrast on each event? I've never really noticed this too much before but also haven't rendered a really dark scene before.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I know some people prefer levels or color corrector filters, but I use brightness/contrast.

Any of these can be applied to the event, track, or project.

Audio Effects Tutorials tips?
 

I'd like to create the sound of a voice I recorded sound like it was being heard over an intercom. I have Vegas 6 and Sound Forge 6. Anyone know of a good way to make this effect?

Also, to make an audio track sound more distant (for example an explosion that is initially heard outside and the tail part heard from inside a room). Is there a good trick for this other than just lower the audio volume?

You might start with the Parametric EQ starting with the Phone Line preset and adjust to your liking.

Audio problem when recording voice over
 

I was doing some narration today and all of a sudden the volume of the track I was narrating on to went way up. I mean the audio track frequency levels on the track are huge and almost cover the audio track. The volume is way to high and it sounds hollow. Did I hit the wrong button? Help. Bob

The *problem* (if you want to call it that) with using B/C instead of color correction tools, is that you're raising the luma noise as much as the chroma, which is something most folks would like to avoid.
I'd recommend using Levels as a starter anyway. Glenn Chan has a great tutorial on this subject found on the VASST site.
Also, ALWAYS check your MPEG 2 renders on a television. If you view it in many software DVD players, the gamma is set incorrectly, or blacks set to 0 vs 16 for broadcast.

OK, now I'm thinking harder and the smoke is starting to come out... :-)

Maybe I need to do some testing with levels. Spot (or anyone), would you mind explaining a little more why B/C raises luma noise any more than levels or cc? Is the idea that we'd want to correct chrominance before or instead of touching luminance? (and isn't B/C adjusting luminance AND chrominance?)

Great info. Thank you.

Hmm ok I'm actually going to have to disagree with Spot here! :D

From what I've seen, the brightness and contrast filter (more or less) does the same thing as the levels filter. The interface is different. In my opinion, the interface in levels is a lot better.
*Nitpicky point: The Levels filter has a bug in it, which the brightness/contrast filter doesn't run into. It's when you use "input start" and "output start" at the same time.

They both do the same thing in regards to noise. At least that's what I'm seeing.

2- How are you viewing the DVD?
If it's on a computer, the video overlay settings and the DVD player software does affect your levels. So you may not be seeing your true levels.

And if you view it on a TV, that's another can of worms.

But if you make the whites peg 100 and the blacks peg 0 (which I show the process for in my levels tutorial), it should give you good results. As long as the original footage wasn't very over/underexposed.
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?i...0-90d2f8de9fc1

Hi,

I had some strange color/contrast problems when viewing DVD/MPEG2 on my computer. After a while I found the probem. In my driver for the gfx-card(Geforce 6800 in my case) - I had a tab-menu for gamma and color correction when using "overlays"(which is most often the case when viewing dvd on a computer) - Gamma was set really low and color correction was "weird" - so I hit "reset" in the interface and violá - perfect picture.

Good luck!

// Lazze

A while ago(a year or so) - I did some testing with Canopus Procoder and MC.

My results was a 100% victory using Procoder - better quality AND faster render times.

// Lazze

I should have been more clear there, I'd use curves or primary C/C for this in *most* instances, but I also nearly always start with levels. It's a left over habit from Photoshop. :-)

vegas - toshiba notebook
 

do you think that a notebook (toshiba satellite m70-113) with these specs is good enough for vegas;

PentiumM 750 (1.86GHz,533Mhz FSB,2MB L2), 512MB DDR2, 80 GB 5400 rpm, 15.4" Trubrite WXGA (1280x800), ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X700, 128 MB DDR RAM, DVD Super Multi (Double Layer) drive