Are they even open today? It is Memorial Day, after all.

Thanks John, that makes sense. I was looking all over, and even the manual didn't mention that at all.

I think I need to explore all the right click stuff more. There's allot that can be done in with a right click that the manual doesn't talk about.

Edward,

It's not memorial day in Canada (JK)....

Well, they kept coming on every 5 minutes and telling me that their representatives were busy with other customers and they would be with me shortly...

But now that you mention it...That may explain it...

Thanks.

depends if ur refering to compression..

the effects are track based (if ur using them OUTSIDE of a bus track as in your NOT using these as a send effect) therefore as an insert effect, it would be used prior to any output levels.

as an example, if ur running an eq and compressor and noise reduction set up, then u run a volume envelope along the track, the effects will behave as they should, THEN if ur adjust the envelope as u go along (which is what i do quite often..) the compression <as an example> shouldnt fluctuate as the volume changes

Inserting image at start of project
 

Hey all,

I have just realised that I forgot the insert an image at the start of my project. What I am wondering, due to the fact that I have several splits and different tracks,if it is possible to lock the ENTIRE project into place, and move it across, say 7 seconds so I can put the image in without disrupting my project as it is finished.

I hope this makes sense,

Thanks alot

Scott

Enable ripple, then set it to affect all tracks, markers, regions. Insert your image. Everything will shift downwards.
FWIW, it's a good idea to leave :30 at the front of any project, you may need a count, bars, whatever....or may find that you need to insert an image. :-)

Wow, incredibly fast reply. Worked like a charm.

Thanks so very much Douglas

Vegas Video 6.0d freezes
 

I just purchased a computer recently expressly for being able to edit HD video. (AMD FX60 processor, 4 gig RAM) I've been having problems with Vegas Video 6.0d. It worked fine on my old Intel chip computer but it seems that this AMD based computer is having problems. I cannot "capture" HD video from my camera. The program recognizes my HC-1 camera and I am able to control the fast forwad and rewinds function but when I go to hit play or the red capture button the program freezes. I've have tried re-installing the program several times. I have updated my video card. I have updated to SP2 as well as Windows XP. My IEEE link seems to be working fine since it does recognize my camcorder when I plug it in. I have another friend who is using an early AMD chip and he has no problems. I am out of options. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Your firewire post...is in on the motherboard (integrated or a seperate card).
I had issues way back when capturing in Vegas using my motherboards built in firewire port.
I installed a firewire card, disabled the onboard firewire in the system BIOS, and all was well.

Ripples are extremely powerful. Just be sure to disable it before you do anything else!

A couple of other options in addition to Ripple:

Put the cursor at the beginning of the timeline and choose Insert - Time
This will let you insert any specific amount of time at the cursor position.

Since you're moving EVERYTHING... you could always press CTRL-A to select everything in the project and then slide it however far you want.

Copying bezier mask
 

It's my first time working with Vegas 5 pan/crop feature. I have some archival photos that I'm working with. I'm having a lot of fun and the pan/ crop is working and looking better than I expected, but I have one problem. When I try to copy the mask from one type of clip ( a .tif photo image) to a dv video clip, the size of the mask is changed on the second clip.

In "Vegas 5 Editing Workshop" (which usually is worth it's weight in gold) it says to copy/paste the keyframe from clip a to clip b and the mask will maintain it's aspect ratio. I tried this and it does not seem to work. Maybe I'm not doing this right.

The only way I can get it to work is to uncheck "maintain aspect ratio" in the properties of the two events. This works except the image that I'm masking becomes distorted (it widens and looks unnatural). The image I'm masking is from a photo arranged in portrait rather than landscape.

I hope i've explained the nature of my problem well enough to understand...

I agree...try another firewire port. I have the AMD 64 with 3 gigs of ram and no issues capturing HD. I am sure you have the correct settings in Sony vegas? Are you able to capture with ConnectHD from Cineform which is a very nice program to work with HD footage. Unless something is screwy with the Sony settings, I don't think this is a Sony software issue although I am not sure with the AMD FX.

Also...try setting your cam to downconvert to SD and then try capturing that in Sony V. Does that work?

You also might try asking around in the "What happens in Vegas" section of the HD editing forum below this one.

Thanks David and Edward

David,

If you open the movie in the QuickTime player and choose Window>Show Movie Info, what is the format listed as?

Firewire
 

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I will try installing a seperate firewire card.

Similar Problem
 

Sometimes when I render to quicktime format, my newly rendered file displays a black screen but the audio is there. But if I stop playback and manually move the playback slider I can see the movie as intended. Any thoughts?

Rob

Need Help Captureing
 

Hi, I dont know where to put this, sorry if I posted it twice. I have problem capturing mini dv footages from my panasonic dv953. I have Vegas 5.0, I dont think it's the soft ware, can the vegas capture footages from this camera? It dont have a fire wire port, just a USB. When I do connect, this message comes up,
"Digital video camera is not set correctly.
Connect USB cable to your PC and
set digital video camera to the [Web Camera] mode.
If ready, press the [OK] button."
Is there a way for me to capture footages from this camera?
Thank you.

Use firewire to capture. There is a firewire port on your camera somewhere... the manual can be downloaded if you're having trouble locating it.

If your computer doesn't have a firewire port, get a firewire card + 6pin-4pin firewire cable. They are about $25 (bundle) for people living in the US.
newegg.com
pricegrabber.com
pricewatch.com
resellerratings.com

The USB port is for capturing low quality MPEG4 video (something like that), and the firewire port for DV.

Ah, I found the fire wire port! Thanks alot for pointing me to the right direction.

yeah its your video overlay driver.. most likely this is an ATI gfx card?? i get this too.. also happens with media player sometimes, and when u resize the frame, u can bringback the image

Excalibur: How do I get a cut instead of a dissolve?
 

Subject line pretty much says it all…

In Vegas 6.0:

I’m using/trying Excalibur 5.0.3 demo (I own Excalibur 3)… I’ve added cams 1a and 2a to the toolbar, but when I use them (after running multi-cam), I get dissolves instead of clean cuts. How do I set the buttons to cut instead of dissolve?

Thanks!

PS -- Edward, I wish you well -- speedy recovery!

Duh... 'c' for cut

answered my own question!

After I have printed to tape, I will use that same file (after a few adjustment on the properties) and go to DVD architect. With the audio being -20db it will sound very faint on dvd architect. What audio levels should I raise the master up to for my destination??

Thanks

Actually, in "analog-ese," 0dB is the same as -20dBFS. However, WAY too much attention is paid to these numbers. The bottom line is that you want your output peaks to be in the range of -3dB to -.5dB, depending on the content and dynamics. If you are making work for broadcast and have more than 12dB of dynamic from your average, you've likely got too much happening and you need to level things out.

regarding reference scale/dB matching, www.atsc.org, read the whitepaper on levels.

Yep, "A" cameras dissolve "A"fter the marker
"B" cameras dissolve "B"efore the marker
"C" cameras "C"ut
"D" cameras do a standard "D"issolve centered on the marker

I'm sure you'll see that the Multi-cam tools have grown a lot since version 3 and is also now much faster as well. Since you're on Vegas 6, you don't even need to stop playback of the timeline in order to add new camera switches. Plus, you'll see that the tallys also dissolve indicating the length of the dissolve for you (naturally the tallys "cut" when you're using cuts).

A1u Low cut duplicate with Sony vegas?
 

I have the A1U and like the idea of the low cut filter, but actually like the sound better from having the filter off. I, of course, get extra noise this way. Does Sony V have built in audio filters to adjust for low noises?

Thanks guys

I wouldn't call it a "duplicate" but yes, Sony Vegas (and most other NLE's) have a low cut filter. The filter in A1u is passive, meaning it's not intelligently seeking a frequency and its harmonics. Doing the same thing in post is usually quite simple.

DVD Architect and PCM rendering
 

I am rendering a fairly short piece on DVD Architect (about 30 minutes worth of video). Are there any disadvantages of rendering audio using PCM rather than AC3, other than it taking up more disc space given its uncompressed nature. The quality of the audio seems better with PCM and the volumn is quite a bit louder on the DVD.

Can all DVD players handle PCM? What about playback on computer laptops?

Thanks.

-- Keith

Audio standards for DVD are either PCM uncompressed, or AC3 Dolby Digital

Elective formats are MPG2 and DTS

for a DVD player to carry the dvd logo it MUST be able to play AC3 AND PCM, therefore, u shouldnt have any issues with the compatibility.

as for volume levels, the ac3 encoder within vegas is fully customisable and there are many threads on this forum which detail its nuances

ParticleIllusion problems
 

Hi,

I tried asking this elsewhere and am still frustrated; I hope it's a simple error I'm committing....
I'm importing a 720 x 480 10-second clip into ParticleIllusion (PI)
as a background, adding my effects (in this case, snow),
then removing the background and rendering only the snow as
a TGA with alpha channel.

In Vegas, I am importing this TGA file as an image sequence and placing it above the desired footage on the timeline--and now it is snowing on my desired footage. Here are the problems:

1) the TGA file sequence has a size of 598x480x32, even though the project settings in PI were set to 720x480.


2) For whatever reason, the snow effect is at least twice as fast as it was in PI. In other words, after rendering it in PI, it is now snowing twice as fast as intended, plus what looked like snow in PI, now looks like square snowflakes;

In Vegas, I right click on the PI created file, select properties/and have these settings:

attributes: 598x480x32
format: Targa RLE
frame rate: 29.970 NTSC
field order: none (but I have tried changing it to lower field first with no success)
pixel aspect ratio: 0.9091 (NTSC DV)
alpha channel: pre-multiplied


When I right click the video file/properties/I have these settings:

720x480x24
format: DV
field order: lower field first
pixel aspect ratio: 0.9091 (ntsc dv)

For whatever reason, I'm still getting the special effects (snow) at what looks like twice the speed--maybe even faster than that--from what I created in PI. Yet the frame rates show they are identical.

And despite setting my settings for 720x480 in PI and hitting alt +3 before rendering, the size--as you can tell by the properties--is different.

Any help greatly appreciated!

--Dale

Yes -- ver 5 looks great. Thanks for the reply -- be well!

Vegas color correction tools
 

I am wondering, what is the advantage of paying a Co. like DVfilm to do uncompressed color correction on DV files destined for filmout as oppossed to doing it with the Vegas color correction tools. Thanks!!!

Washington Baltimore Vegas User Group (WBVUG) Meeting
 

Mark your calendars!

The next Washington Baltimore Vegas User Group (WBVUG) meeting will be held on Thursday, June 29th 2006, from 7:00pm - 8:30pm in Washington DC, NW. We currently have reserved an auditorium that seats 100 people so there is plenty of room for everyone.

So come on out and meet your fellow Sony Vegas video editors located in the Washington DC, Baltimore MD and Northern VA area!

Thanks and we hope to see you there.

For information, click here: http://www.oicproductions.net/wbvug.html

Mickey Grackin
mgrackin@oicproductions.net

"Render As..." undoes Track Motion on my clip
 

I'm trying to make a 256k Windows Media Video file for the internet from some XL1 footage, but first I want to get rid of the infamous black border bars.

I take my clip into Vegas, click the Track Motion... button on the video's track, and increase the dimensions of the clip to "grow" it enough so that the black border bars no longer show. The clip previews correctly.

Then I choose "Render As..." WMV, render, sit back and wait.

But the rendered WMV file still has the black border bars, as if the Track Motion enlargement was never applied.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks for the advice--

Try using the "Match Output Aspect" setting in the Pan/Crop window instead.

Another option may be the "Stretch to Fill Frame" option on the "Render As" screen.

Aaargh - why is this happening - borders
 

I don't understand this.

I have 3 video clips on separate tracks one on top of another. I've tried to add the Sony Border (Blurred) to the even on track 1. But it's not working properly. It's giving me a sort of transparent-ish border with the lower layers showing through. It doesn't matter whether I do this at the clip level or the track level. If I SOLO track 1 - or mute the others - it all works fine. I've checked the opacity of track 1 and its set to 100%. No track motion or pan/crop.

There are NO effects on the lower tracks/events or media. No compositing - nothing.

Help!

Thanx

Ian

That's the way it works -- it makes the edges transparent. Either have nothing below the clip, or put a black card under it.

David

Oh my god - of course it does - and that explains how you'd get different coloured blurred borders doesn't it. We have a phrase in the UK - "What a Plonker" - that's me.

Thank you so much.

Ian
(obviously a Vegas novice)