thanks for the rules - I'll pay closer attention next time. It is very understandable.
Dean

When does vegas 7 happen?
 

It's been a year I figured they would be cranking it out for NAB. Maybe not?

Those who do know can't say.
The rest of us will have to wait and hope.
Put another way, if there's no announcement by next Tuesday, it won't be happening next week.

Usually NAB is the launch time for it, but if its anything like 6a Debacle at the NAB 05 launch, id say wait until the first update comes through..

Also, V7 is going to HAVE to be something special... very special..

MPEG Troubles...
 

About 2 months ago, I used a VHS player / DVD recorder to copy my old home movies to DVDs. Yes, I know about quality loss after recompression, but the original tapes were dying, and this seemed to be a quick-fix solution. That is, until I tried to bring those clips into Vegas...

I use DVD Decryptor to select Chapters, and get VOB files onto my hard drive. I then use VOB2MPEG to create Mpegs. I'd like to omit this last step, however, I do not see VOBs in Vegas' Explorer, but that's the least of my troubles.

Both VOBs & MPGs play fine in PowerDVD and Windows Media Player. However, when I preview MPGs in Vegas, the video appears to be 'jerky', as if it is 'stuttering' (I mean video, the sound is OK). Considering that other forum members mention using MPEGs without problems, I have no idea what's wrong with my installation of Vegas. I'm using version 6d. I've had to import MPEGs couple of times before in version 4, and do not remember having this problem.

I also tried to convert MPGs to AVIs using TmpgEnc, VirtualDub Mpeg, and a bunch of other programs, but the resulting AVI always plays fine outside of Vegas, and always stutters in Vegas.

Lastly, hitting stop while previewing MPGs causes Vegas to freeze, and I have to restart the program. Regular (DV) AVIs are OK.

TIA - Roman.

You will lose framerate playing back MPEG2. This can cause the "jerky" effect you are seeing. When you render, all should be fine.

I wish... The 'jerkiness' is there after rendering to DV, and then to MPEG-2 in Procoder. I just put a couple of short AVIs and MPGs together, you can really see the difference (smooth AVI motion vs. micro-freezing MPG).

Just a thought: could Field Order be the problem? Normally, what's captured from a DV camera is Lower field first, but the MPG from a DVD would be Upper first, wouldn't it?

MPEG2 is also typically LOWER field first (as output by Vegas for putting on DVDs). So it COULD be a field order issue if you've told it to be upper first.

Did you try importing the mpgs from the DVD directly using File/Import? I did this recently and it captured/created mpgs from the dvd given that it wasn't copy protected or anything like that...

I haven't made any changes to the project (default: lower first) or the clip, I just assumed that the clip would be upper first since this is the setting I normally use in Procoder. I'll check the file when I get home. Thanks!
The DVDs are my home movies, and I didn't copy-protect them, LOL. I wasn't aware of this capability, and will give it a try, thanks. The reason I like DVD Decrypter is because it can select Chapters (5minutes each) or even Cells instead of bringing in the whole VOB.

The best practice is to have video capture go to a drive other than the one that is running your OS. This helps avoid dropped frames during capture.

Best practice is to have video playback to the timeline from a drive other than the OS HD. This helps to display higher framerates, especially with multiple video layers.

All those other files (stills, sound efx, etc.) can go wherever you think they should. The performance impact of having them on any particular drive is pretty negligible. You should think more about a consistent directory structure that will work for you across different projects over time.

The render-to drive... is a little more grey, in my opinion. I believe there is a small speed increase when you render to a different drive than your video media is on... but, I'm not sure how significant this is, I've never tested it.

Having said all that, on my desktop PC I always have multiple drives going, but frequently render to the same drive just so that I can keep render files in my project folders.

Tip: Pick-Off Bezier Points . .
 

. if this IS in the manual I haven't seen it . .but .. After speaking on SKYPE yesterday, with one of our Veg-E-phytes, I came across SHIFT+SPACEBAR. This I allowed me to select not only individual POINTS but sequences of Points IN or OUT of sequence. Meaning: Points A,B,C,D,E,F,G, . . . I could go A+B . .or . .A+C+E+F or what ever combination thereof!

So, holding down Shift+Spacebar all I needed to to was Click on those points I wanted. Once "click" they also change colour to having a solid dark/black show up in their innards. Neat.

If this was known - apologies. But I can tell you this is a boon for any Bezier Captains out there wanting to Navigate around and pick off them pesky points!

Cheers,

Grazie

It worked!
 

Many thanks, Phil! The Import/File route worked for MPGs, and ther's no 'stuttering' in the rendered file, just like Ed predicted. I must've done something wrong in my previous attempts. I also suspect that Preview from media explorer uses DirectShow filters, and I may be having a problem there. Time to re-learn Gspot, I guess. Oh, and Vegas did identify those MPGs as Upper field first, which seems to be correct.

One more thing: even with the 'Import/File', I do not see the VOB files unless I select 'All files'. When I do bring a VOB onto the timeline, it only shows about 5 seconds of it, not its full length. Any ideas how to fix it? TIA.

Graham,

You may find this little trick works in many more things than what you described. This is the Windows convention of using Shift+(whatever select key) to select a contigious range of items, be they files or characters of text in a word processor. Using Ctrl+(whatever select key) usually allows you to select a 'group' by picking them one by one. They don't have to be a contigious range. And finally, you can combine the two methods.

If you wanted items 1,3,5 and then everything from 10 to 20, you would use Ctrl+ and select 1,3, and 5. Continue to hold down Ctrl while you point to item 10 and select it, then add the Shift key and hold it while you point to item 20.

You can play with this concept in Explorer for file selection, but the same principle applies in most applications as I mentioned above. Maybe that's why Vegas doesn't include this in the manual as they 'assume' Windows users are aware of these operational conventions on the Windows platform.

regards,

-gb-

p.s. Tell the Queen I said "Happy 80th birthday!"

Keyboard shortcuts are a largely arcane art. Most people should get to know them . . . life is much sweeter.