When I ran Excalibur, more often than not, I would get the "vegas6.exe has encountered an error and needs to close - report to Mircorsoft, etc" message - but frustratingly Excalibur would then open behind the error message - but of course closed when Vegas closed. Ed immediately suspected plug-ins. He sent me a script which basically displayed the name of each plug in encountered - but I guess it must have "interrogated" that plug in in the same way Excalibur does.

I got the same crash message with this script every time it encountered Magic Bullet Editor. I think this was installed as part of Vegas 6. As soon as i uninstalled MB, Exclaibur worked perfect.

Please note that I am not saying there is any issue at all with MB; just that in this particular instance unistalling it allows Excalibur to work and I need Excalibur more than I ned MB. I'm upgrading computer soon so will be reinstalling all software - I'm sure everything will work fine together then.

Ian

Ian, to move both video and audio, simply select BOTH. Click on one, Ctrl-click the other, and now both will move together.

Is it one continuous clip over the entire width of the screen? (i.e. there's ONE image on the screen but only the middle stripe is in color)

If yes, you could use masking.

Track 1: White Generated media set where the white is a middle stripe - Track composite mode set to "Multiply (Mask)"
Track 2: Video clip (which will show the color) - Track set as a child to track 1
Track 3: Video clip with an effect added to make it black and white (either the Black and White effect or one of the color correction effects bringing down the saturation.)

This will give you a stripe of color between two stripes of black and white.

Hi Edward

Yeah - but I thought the idea of 'grouping' was that they would move together - ie - you jove one and other moves?

Ian

Left/Right - yes
Up/Down - no

In other words - grouped they will stay in sync.

Ahhhh (look of realisation crossing face).

As ever, many thanx for clarifying that!

Ian

Ian, if you're looking to move clips into another track, but maintain their L/R position in the timeline, try this keyboard shortcut:

Highlight the clip, then use the 8 key on the number pad to move up, or the 2 key to move down.

I use this all the time when I'm trying to maintain sync. Also, if you are trying to get in perfect sync with something, try dropping a marker (m key) at the point you want the clip to start. If snap-to-markers is turned on, this is a very reliable way to place your clip at a certain point in the timeline.

Do check out the newsletters available from the link in Edwards signature line - great info there as you are getting into Vegas, including a 1-page article on numpad shortcuts.

Other keyboard shortcuts may be found in the Vegas help file, and in a "sticky" post at the top of this forum's messages list.

.NET Framework 2.0 with Vegas
 

I've just installed the MS Office 2007 public beta on a pc and I have to say it looks really rather good! However, when installing the Business Contact Manager add-on to Outlook 2007 it says I need to upgrade .NET to 2.0.

The machine I've installed Office 2007 on is not running Vegas - in fact, it only runs email/internet/office/web dev etc kind of apps - but I would be interested to know whether anyone has had any experience of upgrading .NET to v2 on a pc running Vegas and whether there have been any problems.

Cheers.

Ian . . .

Vegas 5 requires at .NET 1.1. Vegas 6 needs .NET 1.1 SP 1 (which Vegas 5 can also use). Neither can use .NET 2.0. Fortunately, .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 can co-exist on the same system so it's safe to have both installed.

Ah, that's interesting - I hadn't considered that the two could co-exist; I assumed 2.0 would simply replace 1.1.

I'm happy to NOT install the Office 2007 beta on my production machine though - I was just curious.

Thanks for the response Edward and may I add my personal note of 'welcome back'.

Best,

Ian . . .

Frame Rate & Sign Language
 

I'm very new to all of this. In fact, I haven't edited one thing as yet. I am reading this forum daily in an attempt to absorb all that I can prior to taking on a project assigned to me at work.

I work at a school for the deaf. Beginning this Fall, I will be shooting digital video with a Canon xl-2 and editing in Sony Vegas 6 for the purpose of creating instructional video for teaching sign language.

Although I have several questions, my main concern at the moment is frame rate for shooting and editing. I have to put function over form and get the smoothest possible video even if that means making it look less film like and more video like.

Is 60i the best choice for camera setting and rendering output? If I use 60i throughout, will things move that much more smoothly?

Would I be creating other problems with respect to clarity? For instance, does the reduction in harshness of a more film like look overtake the smoothness of movement by being easier on the eyes for an extended period of time?

--rick

Chipmunks
 

Can you get the chipmunk voice sound without changing the speed? i.e. pitch.

=
Raise pitch one semitone.

Ctrl+=
Raise pitch one cent.

Shift+=
Raise pitch one octave.

Ctrl+Shift+=
Reset pitch.

-
Lower pitch one semitone.

Ctrl+-
Lower pitch one cent.

Shift+-
Lower pitch one octave.

Ctrl+Shift+-
Reset pitch.



or Right-click the audio, choose Properties, and manually type in the desired pitch change.

Hey Rick
I’ve done some sign language videos and found the best results with 60i. Especially if the target is TV or DVD. If its web or computer, you would defiantly want to deinterlane to 30p. I believe in 60i, you can always take away but never add it later.

The other tip, I highly recommend is to shoot with a higher shutter speed. Most people use 1/60 with video but when sign people get movin it gets blurry. I try to shoot with 1/75 or 1/90. Course it depends on lighting conditions, but go as high as you can.

One other thing is the hands are the most important. Generally most deaf people (at least the ones I have shot for) like dark clothes, to make the hands stick out more (movement finger spelling ect.) Some prefer dark backgrounds, others don’t so you might ask. Lighting is best fairly flat, but don’t light it too bright, some deaf people would always complain the scene was too bright, it wasn’t over exposed, but for most deaf folks they want it to look like the person is in front of them, they don’t care about film or artsy looks. They want to see the person properly, as sign language has a lot of facial expression.

But always remember high shutter speed, If its for instructional learning they probably won’t go that fast, but its the worst when the image not is necessarily blurring but its soft, and the person can’t quite make out what the signer is saying. Also if it is more teaching purposes try to use an NLE with semi strong slow motion capabilities, as sometimes something is slowed down to give an example.

I like trying to make video look like film in general, but for sign videos I always go straight up video. So yea as little noise as possible, if the person is wearing darker clothes be careful the blacks don’t get dirty with noise, don’t crush them, but be careful of any gain. Course I’ve never done it, but heck maybe just shoot outside and you’ll have less lighting issues. (well until the sun goes down….I think I’ve gabbed enough)

Jacob,

Thanks for the information. It is great to find someone that has experience with sign language.

For this particular training, the instructor is caucasian so my initial thoughts are to use black clothing, with about a 50% gray slightly modeled background. That gives me hands face and arms that are the lightest elements on the screen well separated from the clothing and the background. And, a 50% separation between the background and the clothing.

Does that seem workable?

--rick

Edward

That worked great. And of course I can apply all of the normal FX to the generated media also to smooth out the edges!

Thanx

Ian

Hey u r back!

Yeah, he's back just in time for my critical question of a life time..........telling me how to make people sound like chipmunks without increasing the speed. Hehe.

Yes - and it feels good to be back!

Audio Out
 

In short, I can plug a 1/4 male into my input on my onboard sound on my mother board, and connect the split rca's to my 15 monitor and play sound such as my Itunes off my NLE. But when I try to play a vegas timeline audio, I get nothing. I've explored for about an hour different settings. Is there something I'm missing in Vegas. I can play an audio timeline out of my speakers, which is my main output on my onboard sound, but I can't get vegas to play out the line such as one designated as a second output that my Itunes does and such. I set my onboard audio to 4 channel to get the link to my monitor to work.

So Itunes will play using my bridge to my preview monitor, but vegas will not.

Anyone have a bone to throw me?

Thanks Everyone For Your Input...I have got a custom to the keys now after using it for a couple days

If you're getting sound at all out of any program on your PC, you should be able to get Vegas audio out to those same speakers.

Assuming you can for example play something from iTunes or Windows Media Player (please write again if you don't hear sound out of windows programs)...

The vegas controls you are looking for are in Options | Preferences | Audio Device. Most straightforward: Pull down the setting for "audio device type" to "microsoft sound mapper". That will probably do it.

If that doesn't work, explore the other devices you have available in that setting and test them.

You seem to be suggesting that you have a 4-channel audio card and you want Vegas to play out of channels 3 & 4? If so, you want to find those channels in the audio device settings, that's where you set it up.

If none of the above work, you might look at your project audio properties, and assure that you are playing back off the timeline at a standard that your audio card accomodates. For example, 16 bit 44.1 KHz ought to work, but 24 bit 96 KHz might not.

Still no joy? Write back...

Under the options pull down menu, are you sure you don't have all audio muted ??

Hehe, yeah, knowing me, that was the first thing I checked. I can get Vegas sound through my speakers, i.e main speaker out, but not to the monitor, I'm going look into Seths' ideas.

Still no joy, thinking. I tested Acid which came with Vegas, and DVD Architect, neither one of the me will play through the monitor, but Itunes and the like still will. Hmmmm.

Sounds like it would work just fine Rick. If you have the time, even if the person your going to use isn't avaliabe do some test shots. Its kinda a pain, but if I can't blackmail someone to be my model, I just stand in front of the camera myself and go back and worth changing settings until it looks good.

Good luck on your project.

jacob

Using Windows Classic drivers? Asio drivers? routing? um....trying to think of other possiblities....those are the first that come to mind after what others have suggested.

Update
 

I plugged my monitors audio up to my other computer which has a sound card, not the onboard sound, when I switched the computers sound configuration to 5.1 surround, I got sound out of Vegas. So I'm narrowing it down to that on my NLE's sound configuration.

SSE2 and simple edit question
 

I have one workstation with only SSE support(no SSE2, SSE3). New version of Premiere don't support such CPU anymore.

Wich versions of Vegas can work with that CPU(PIII-866)?
Can i do in Vegas simple edit. It means cut out all unnecessary footage and export all remaining clips without any recompression?

I have Vegas 6 running on a PIII 300MHz for testing purposes. I don't edit on that machine but I do test run scripts. The official base requirements are:

Microsoft® Windows® 2000, XP Home, or XP Professional (Windows XP SP2 required for HDV)
800 MHz processor (2.8 GHz recommended for HDV)
200 MB hard-disk space for program installation
600 MB hard-disk space for optional Sony Sound Series Loops & Samples reference library installation
256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM recommended for HDV)
OHCI-compatible i.LINK® connector*/IEEE-1394DV card (for DV capture and print-to-tape)
Windows-compatible sound card
CD-ROM drive (for installation from a CD only)
Supported CD-Recordable drive (for CD burning only)
Microsoft DirectX® 9 or later (included on CD-ROM)
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 SP1
Internet Explorer 5.1 or later (included on CD-ROM)

Vegas 5 files to Vegas 6?
 

Hey gang,

I've picked up Vegas 6. Yay!

Will there be any problems accessing my Vegas 5 files with V6?

Just wondering.

sincerely,


ian

BTW.

This is NOT an upgrade.

It's a totally new install of the V6.

No problems should be encountered opening older veg files in Vegas 6, no.
Congrats!

Thanks DSE,

Good to know.

sincerely,


ian

Late to this thread but I have to echo what Emre posted.

A shuttle/jog will go miles/kilometers (for the rest of the world) to making your workflow smoother.

That and the keyboard shortcuts as you've no doubt deduced.

All the best.

ian

Just remember, if you open a Vegas 5 file in Vegas 6 and then save it in Vegas 6, it will no longer open in Vegas 5. So... Always make a copy first or do a Save As to a new name in Vegas 6.

thanks, Edward. Remains second question. If i have msdv footage and i do simpel cut do vegas export it without recomressing if i choose export format msdv as well.
And third question: can i do cut with proxy files and later replace in project directory proxy footage with original and then produce export footage.

Boris Graffiti upgrade from LTD in Vegas 6
 

Hey gang,

I'm just trying to figure out what I may have misunderstood, if anything.

Picked up Vegas 6 from Videoguys and they have Boris Graffiti 4 as an upgrade for Vegas users.

A sales rep had stated that, yes, the upgrade could upgrade from the Graffiti LTD included with Vegas 6.

However, there's no serial number with the Graffiti 4 disc and when I try to enter the Graffiti LTD serial it doesn't "take."

Any ideas?

FYI. I have an email into Boris and awaiting a reply. I was just wondering if anybody else has experienced this or if I'm missing something important.

sincerely,


ian

If you have a DV-AVI file, do simple cuts, and output to DV-AVI, the parts you are keeping will simply be copied to the new file. As soon as you add any FX or dissolves, that changes.

Whoops! Can I downconvert HDV24f
 

I suppose I should have checked first but I was trying out the XLH1 24f instead of 60i this weekend, viewed it on the HD monitor Saturday night and liked it so much I shot more on Sunday.

Now I don't think I can downconvert it in Vegas 6.0d.

Looks like I could have shot SD24f and been OK but I can't find a template in Vegas for the downconvert.

I may have to sit on the masters till I get my NLE that can handle the HD24f.

Any help is appreciated.

Ken

HD footage not playing...heelp
 

Im having a small problem. Im working for someone and they gave me some HD footage. Whenever i try and play the footage on my computer, there are a bunch of horizontal lines in the footage and it looks really bad. Do i need a special codec or anything to play the footage on my computer?

and another thing, i also have a HD tape, it wont play on my XL2, will it?