Am I doing this right?
 

My goal is to end up with a 16:9 DVD. That way if it's played on a 4:3 set, the DVD player will letterbox it, and if it's played on a 16:9 set, it will work correctly.

Shooting with a DVX100A, I don't want to use Letterbox mode since that of course puts black bars across the top and bottom of 4:3 footage. I'd rather not shoot in "Squeeze" mode since it merely crops the image and stretches it to fit a 16:9 frame, which means my framing has no room for error. Shooting in 4:3 works best since it gives me room to Pan/Crop if I find my framing was off.

So what I'm doing is:

1) shooting in 4:3
2) creating a Widescreen NTSC project
3) bringing in my 4:3 footage, and "zooming in" with Pan/Crop until my footage fills the frame.

Am I doing it correctly to achieve what I'm after?

Thanks!

Have you tried this on a short clip to see if any difference in quality:

1. Bring 4:3 footage into time line. Apply a letter box matte, moving video underlying to fit the box as needed.

2. Render to 4:3 final.

3. Bring 4:3 final render into 16:9, and adjust as needed.

Bill, the 16:9 crop preset in the pan/crop tool works superbly. When you crop your 4:3 footage with it, at default settings, it'll stretch to fill the frame in a Widescreen project. Then, when you render as Widescreen, you're golden.

That said, I almost always jut work in a 4:3 project, because it's easier to maintain a full-framerate playback that way. You can render as Widescreen right from a 4:3 project and the results will be the same. Because you can always switch project settings on the fly, I usually switch to a Widescreen project and scan through it just to make sure I've actually managed to crop every single 4:3 clip, but that's just a safety step. It's not necessary.

You can also do as Chris mentions, but it will result in a generational loss. Another way to do it, if you have Vegas 6, is to open a new project and import your main project as a nested project, and just crop the whole thing as if it were a clip. More or less the same thing, but with no generational loss.

capture settings
 

I've decided to start looking for a new editor for the PC. I'm SICK and TIRED of Premiere's problems.

Basicly, what I want to know is, how do I capture 24p footage that I shot with my XL2 with Vegas 6.0d?

what settings should I use?

I'm new to using 24p footage and I don't know how to set-up my project to get good clean quality and keep it 24p.

When starting a project, should I use these settings:

Template: NTSC DV24p Widescreen (720x480, 23.976 fps)
Field Order: None (progressive scan)
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.212 (NTSC Widescreen)
Frame rate: 23.976 (IVTC Film) OR 24.000 ?

Which setting is correct for frame rate?

Also, on the Ruler tab, under Ruler Time Format what should I use?
SMPTE Drop (29.97 fps, video), SMPTE Film Sync (24 fps, Film) or SMPTE Film Sync IVTC (23.976 fps, Video)?

When I capture, under Options>Preferences, Capture tab, should I use a Custom frame rate of (under Analog Device Options) 24.000 or do I leave it at 29.97 ?

What would be the best settings to use all around to maintain my 24p video?

Better yet, does anyone have a link to a good resourceful website with information on 2:3 and 2:3:3:2 pulldown? Frame rates and all that god stuff?

Thanks in advance, I'm going to continue messing around with the program.

Unlike Premiere, Vegas doesn't care about capture settings. Vegas will correctly see the 24p flags in the media and deal with it.
In Vegas, it's just easy. Set the project settings to the same as your camera settings (ie; 2:3:3:2, or :3:2) and you'll be good to go after you've captured.
Project settings for digital video are always 23.976, never 24p, when on a PC. On a Mac, it's 23.978, but that's just a clocking diff.
Anyway, to sum up, Vegas will always correctly recognize the information at CAPTURE, and then you can do whatever you want to with it for project settings.
I recommend you use the 24p Widescreen template for your Canon-acquired footage.

wow, Vegas is that good? Thanks for the quick reply Douglas (mind if I call you Doug?)

Yeah, when I captured with PPro, I think it made my footage all screwy. I've been having one hell of a time trying to rebuild what I've shot and cut so far. I get a lot ofinterlacing, ghosting artifacts....it's just horrible. I think I'm going to start from scratch, from capture.

I have the same problem, but I have no idea why. I know I've read of others, as well. It doesn't seem to affect the final file in any way - though it is a distracting inconvenience nonetheless.

EDIT: Spelling, sorry.

Roger, check the tutorial in my sig. Should explain everything. It applies equally to the XL2 and the DVX100.

But a couple of addenda -- there's no "2:3" or "2:3:3:2" project template, just 24p. Don't worry about what kind of pulldown you used, as you'll see in the video.

Also, Vegas's capture program doesn't recognize anything -- all the magic happens inside Vegas after capture. Remember, the capture program is a separate program from which Vegas automatically imports footage -- but it's a separate program. It just captures as 60i; Vegas does the rest after the import.

Sony Vegas - it's that simple - Period!

Great, thanks for all the different ways to get it done, folks!

I'll try 'er and see.

Vegas 6 Audio Capture Problem - Update
 

Thanks to all for your responses. After further testing, I have found the final product does contain some audio break up, but not the non-stop break up I experience in the actual capture process. In this latest test, the audio break up lasted about 10 seconds, mostly in one section of the 5 minute video. Regardless, even 10 seconds makes for a bad capture. I will continue to experiment with another DV tape project later this week.

Great video David! Thanks for that. Do you have any more of these or must I pay? If so, how much?

Thanks again for all the help guys!

EDIT: I forgot to ask, since I captured with Premiere Pro, I can still use the same captured footage and Vegas will correct the video accordingly, without loss of data or miscontruscted frame rates? Just double checking since Premiere is complete FUBAR.

If you captured them as 60i files (which is what PP 2.0 does; not sure about the rest), then you're fine. Vegas should still detect and remove the pulldown.

If older version of Premiere Pro do an on-the-fly pulldown removal and give you straight 24p AVIs (I don't really know; last time I looked at their 24p capabilities, I just gave up, returned happily to Vegas, and haven't worried about it since), then you should also have no problem editing in 24p.

Simply put, Vegas has likely got you covered. But if for some reason the files don't work, yeah, just recapture.

As for more tutorials, stay tuned.

THanks a bunch David. Looking forward to more tutorials!

Animation
 

I use Vegas 6 D and I have a question. I am trying to figure out how to animate an object. I have a bird (chic) logo and I want to have it walk onto the screen and nest by my text logo for an opening and closing credit. The legs are stick figures. Anyone suggest how to do this?

Jeff Mack