I had to load my Vegas 6 on a Dell B120 Inspiron once, which has lower specs overall than the unit you mentioned above, and I was surprised how well it performed... but, it was a small project I was working on...

Vegas vs PPro for HDV (XLH1)
 

I have to buy an NLE soon and need some advice. I am getting a system built which should be pretty good - similar to Boxx at $6800 but built locally for under 5k.

I plan on using the Cineform intermediate either Aspect or Connect HD. I tried the trial of Vegas 6 and liked it for SDV. What I really want is easy to use glitch/bug free editing (as much as that is possible). I am primarily a shooter so I want ease of use without dimnished performance with HDV. I have a couple of guys locally who I can bring in to edit but neither have worked with HDV. One uses Vegas and one uses PPro.

Most output will be to DVD or for TV broadcast. Edits to be relatively simple. I have always thought PPro to be a higher standard but have studied Vegas and would expect it to sufficient for my needs.

One of the major reasons I would go to Vegas is the support here by John Rofrano, DSE, David Jimmerson et al.

Can Vegas give me relatively smooth post while providing 'pro' quality edits/graphics in HDV???

All feedback appreciated.

Ken.

Soft Focus / Glows in Vegas with 1 layer
 

An interesting way to use the unsharp mask filter:

Amount = -0.500 (values between 0 and -1 work); unfortunately the slider doesn't work with negative values.
Radius = 0.027
Threshold = 0.000 (non-zero values risk banding/artifacting)

This will give a soft focus effect, without having to do 2 layers. The look is different than glow, or duplicating a layer onto itself with the top layer at 50% opacity and guassian blur applied.

All three methods give different looks.

Yes, Vegas can/will provide smooth playback via an HDI (which you should always use for HDV) and will provide crisp output for broadcast, whether SD or HD. Premiere Pro 2.0 is a good tool too, but it really needs the hardware assist to be up to its best game. Slightly higher learning curve, significantly slower color correction and compositing tools, but very respectable as an NLE these days. Nowhere near like legacy versions, this latest is nice. However, I'm very partial to Vegas.
Welcome to the forum, hope to see you around often!

Yeah . .thanks Glenn. I was missing out on the Radius value. Excellent! Been playing with all sorts of negatives in others too.

Grazie

Hey, I got the answer. Thanks to Douglas Spotted Eagle. "Vegas 6 editing workshop". Page 201. Bob

thanks Lars

Glad I'm not crazy for thinking that...

Re-installing Vegas will definetly help. But be aware that the it takes quite some time to convert from .m2t to .avi with the internal codec.

Greetings

Richard

All audio tracks suddenly lower in pitch
 

I have managed to mess up the sound and I do not know how. The length of the tracks seems to have stayed the same, but the pitch is decreased.

Problem solved: the m-Audio ASIO driver was acting up. Using the Audio Devices tab, I switched to another driver and back to solve the problem. I hope this helps someone!

Video/Audio Playback
 

This is a two part question, first of all, I am using a Sony DVMC-DA2 analog converter to import analog video into vegas 6. It is imported via firewire and it works great, however, wanted to try using my TV as an external monitor for preview and I managed to get the picture to play through it, but not the sound, is there any way to get the sound to come through the TV as well. On a side note, is there any way to get videos on my computer to play through the convereter, on to my TV without using Vegas at all. This has nothing to do with editing, just for watching movies.

Secondly, I have a lot of downloaded videos on my computer that I have tried to import into Vegas, but only the audio appears and no video, sometime neither. Does anyone know where to get codecs to help eliminate this problem. Thanks again.

No. Sound will be monitored through your computer's sound card in this setup, that's the way Vegas does it.

You'd need some application to watch movies through your fw converter, I'm not aware of any, but I suppose it's possible.

This is normal. The sound comes from your computer speakers and the video goes to the external monitor. If you insist on the sound coming from the monitor, run a wire from the computer output to the monitor input.

When you do a print to tape, both video and audio go via firewire.



You need to figure out WHAT codec you need and then search for that codec. You might try a program like GSpot to determine that information.

Its all about the ram
 

Remember that Vegas is all abotu the RAM and CPU in order to have decent quality previews. Add on too many layers, color correction, effects, etc and almost any system gets slowed down to a crawl. I would suggest more RAM by at least 1GB. 512 will get the job down, but will add to the time needed to load a complex project.

jason

Preview Monitor
 

I have Vegas set up for my 61" Samsung DLP to be my preview monitor. It works great. Is there any way to do this with DVDA? The only preview I can do is with the preview control and it opens up windows media player. I suppose I can drag it to the other screen but I didn't know if it does it automatically like Vegas.

Jeff

Sorta
You can put your main DVDA window on the right window, and the track view, etc docks on the left window, and then it will open. DVDA only outputs to external via firewire at this time, so you don't have the same selections available for DVDA like you do Vegas.

Thanks for the info.

By the way, I would like to personally thank everyone that answers my questions on this forum. I have learned a lot and occasionally have the opportunity to answer questions. This is a great thing. Especially getting help from those professionals like DSE who obviously have other things going on.

Thanks again Chris Hurd.

Jeff Mack

Pan Crop Help.
 

Newbie here, I nedd to do some Pan & scan on a few photos. Some of the motion I've done looks great. BUT, on some of the pictures, the result looks as though the borders are just shrinking around the picture. Obviously, I want it to appear that the camera is moving, not the edges of the picture. Could someone please set me straight on or at least get me through this particular bit of stupidity!!
Thanks, John

I'm not totally sure this is your problem, but make sure you right-click on the image in the pan/crop dialog and set the aspect ratio to your project, rather than to the image. Then it will fill the screen (the edges of the crop box will be the edges of the screen).

Increasing volume?
 

How do I increase the volume on my audio track more than 6db (which I get using the volume envelope)? I only want certain portions to be louder than +6db because I can barely here what the people are saying (because I was playing with the audio levels too much and turned it too low on some parts while recording).

There are many ways to do this. If the volume is really low, I'd open a copy in Sound Forge and edit it destructively, then it comes back as a new take in Vegas when you close the file in SF.

But you certainly don't need a separate audio editor to do this -- the volume slider on the track is probably the easiest way, but you can always also use an audio bus with the volume slider turned up on it, or with another volume envelope on that bus. Also, there's also a plug-in called "volume." There are lots of ways to turn up the volume on an audio clip, and if you use more than one at a time, they compound the effect.

If you only want certain portions to be affected, you might move those portions onto different tracks, or use an audio bus with another volume envelope on it (+6 on the main track, then +6 on those parts of the bus, and you get +12 overall).

Does the volume slider actually increase volume or does it just make it play louder while editing? In other words, when I render it, will I hear the increased volume caused by the slider?

The track slider will actually increase the volume-depending on how much louder you need it though you might consider using the VOLUME plugin under NON-REALTIME EFFECTS, raise the levels perhaps about 4 or 5db and then fine adjust with the slider and envelopes.

Don

So in summary:

1. Normalize - Raises the loudest point to -.1 dB by default
2. Track Volume Level - up to +12 dB
3. Volume Envelope - up to +6 dB
4. Bus track - up to +12 dB
5. Master volume - up to +12 dB
6. etc... (other effects and options are available that can also raise the volume level)

Right-click the image and choose "Match Output Aspect". I do this on ALL pictures - of course I do it the quick way and do it via a script.

It isn't just for monitoring, it will affect the volume when you render.

Masking a white background...
 

Ok, Im new to Vegas 6, but not to video editing. I have a clip where there's a main human figure in the center and an ALMOST completely white background (due to less than perfect lighting). I want to remove the "almost" completely white background and put a solid white color clip underneath - to simulate a completely white background.

So far Ive tried putting the clip in the first track, copying it and pasting it into the second track as a child track. But when I use "Mask Generator" on either clip, the clips become greyscale. I know that it removes the white background, because I can see both clips. How do I do this but keep my main human figure in its original full color?

Your help is greatly appreciated, thanks...

Help with motion issues?
 

First of all thanks for all the great input. Here is my issue. I am experimenting with different settings with my new A1U and Sony Vegas 6.0. I did a 30 second clip, used the trial version of Cineform connectHD and then loaded into vegas. Just cut part of the beginning and end off and then saved with several suggestions from this board. DVD ntsc widescreen, architect widescreen etc and also tried out custom settings. I am still get motion issues (I forget what the experts call them) with certain spots. Kind of a featherd artifact. As I am typing I am thinking that my initial new project setting where not adjusted. This may be the issue, but I would still like some input.

Thanks again

Mike

Use the Secondary Color Corrector filter on the clip. Use the eyedropper tool to select a range of (presumably white) values in the background, and use the color corrector to force the value to white. Alternatively, set the alpha to 0 of the selection, and put a white background on another track underneath. You may need to check the "invert mask" box.

The Secondary Color Corrector is a much more powerful mask generator than the "Mask Generator"... as it allows you to define masks based on luma + hue + saturation.

Veg file to another computer
 

Is it possible to take a rendered file and put it DVD Arch on another computer?

If so, by what means? Thanks very much

The VEG file is a Vegas project file. It contains information about your project
and the files it uses. It does not contain any of the video / audio (except for
generated media).

If you want to transfer something to DVD Architect you need to export a movie
file to either (DV) AVI or MPEG2 (with a seperate audio file) from Vegas. You
can then copy that file to the other computer over a network if it is connected
like that or in another way like an external harddisk. Then import the file into
DVD Architect and build your DVD.

NOTE: If you go the MPEG2/AC3 route and have added markers to the project to be used as chapter points, they *may* be lost when you copy over to the other machine.

Thanks
 

Thanks Brian & Ed.

Sorry, it is already rendered mpeg-2.

Then just take that MPEG2 file to the other computer, add it to DVD A, and continue from there.

Video Vegas 5.0
 

Greetings, im new in here but i hope this is the right place to post, and aswell that you understand my question. Im making World of Warcraft movies in Vegas, and ive figured many things out my self, but one thing still hasnt been available for me to make. I want to make some 'black bars' in the top and in the bottom where i can write something, for instance "Visit www.guild-x.com"
How to make these?

there are a couple of ways. The easiest being to take GENERATED MEDIA >TEXT>BLACK background. Type in your text then goto PLACEMENT and drop it down to where you want it. Use the TRACK MOTION or PAN/CROP to adjust the size of the black background to look like a lower thirds. Remember to watch you TITLE SAFE area on the preview screen.

That should take care of you.

Don

You might also want to take a look at Vol 2 #10 of my newsletters for the article on creating lower thirds.

Hey, THANKS a million, Gian!! That not only completely worked, but the result was exactly what I wanted and it looks absolutely flawless!!!!

Thanks again!!

That was the issue...figures user error :-)