With the pan/crop tool on an EVENT you can pan across the image or crop it but not shrink the entire image or move it around the screen. If you want to move a whole shrunken image around the screen use the pan/crop on the TRACK and keyframe your movements.

I don't quite understand what your trying to explain. Though if Rob is in the right direction you might want to try the Track/motion tool- not pan/crop. Then again- I'm a complete Vegas newb!

Ed? Alex? ........anyone?!

Oh yeah. . .forgot about track motion thanks.

you also might want to think about creating a mask with another layer so you can move the videos around independently of the mask.

Rob:D

Okay, now let's say I want to crop the video after resizing it, without it filling the screen, and without losing the aspect ratio. What I mean is, if I want to narrow the frame without "squishing" the contents within, how do I do this?

Oops, I should have called it track motion. Thats the correct term.

Ok, if you want to crop an event use the cookie cutter filter or the border filter.

u could even use the free 3d plugin and resize it that way...
i find this to offer a little more variety as you can tilt the video and not have the standardish kinda pic in pic

Pan/Crop CAN work, you just have to make the "F" window very large. The clip can then be moved around on the screen. However the best/easiest way to do this is via Track Motion.

Nope, can't use the plugin pac, or this post wouldn't be here. The 3d plugin pac LE, I have learned from its author, Satish, operates on both fields of video at once. This means that it will make your 60i footage look progessive in any clip where it's used. I can't have that.

In addition, I just tried the border and cookie cutter plugins. They're not doing what I want either. I'd like to crop the sides of the video without affecting the top and bottom.

<<Okay, now let's say I want to crop the video after resizing it, without it filling the screen, and without losing the aspect ratio. What I mean is, if I want to narrow the frame without "squishing" the contents within, how do I do this?>>

First you size your image in track motion, and position it where you want it on the screen. Do it by dragging with the mouse or writing the right values in Size and Center boxes. Make sure the Lock aspect ratio is on.

Then you open event pan/crop. Make sure the Lock aspect ratio button is off. Unclick the stretch to fill frame square. Pull the sides of the image in to crop it. And that's it.

Try CROPPING the image with Pan/Crop and then resizing and positioning the image with Track Motion.

With the cookie cutter you CAN crop the sides without affecting the top. For example use the square and set repeat Y to 2 and then decrease the size bar and it will crop the sides.

Also Ed is of course right about being able to shrink the image and move it around with the Pan/Crop tool on an event. However since you also want to crop the sides and dont want to use the 3d plug I think you will want to use the cookie cutter as described in conjunction with track motion.

Hey look Ed we practically have a new Vegas forum right here...(tounge in cheek). Moo/SF/DMN and now DVinfo and of course the occasional VU action.

Vegas and Dual processors
 

Hello,

does anyone know if vegas 4 takes advantage of Two processors in a system??

Mike

Yes and No.

Yes, when rendering it DOES use two processors - one for video and one for audio. However, you won't see 100% usage on both processors.

However, you can run two instances of Vegas at the same time and still get good response time with two processors.

Yeah I heard Spot mention that in the Class On Demand for Vegas DVDs. Why would anyone run two instances of Vegas simultaneously? Wouldn't that eat ram!

Multiple reasons:

1. Copy things from one project to another
2. Render one project while working on another
3. Render multiple projects at once
etc...

Vegas VEG files?
 

This is going to sound like a really big newbie question but what are "VEG" files in Vegas. Are they project files?...What, exactly, do they contain?! I saw that there are downloadable VEG files for Vegas. How would one use one?!

They are project files that contain all the info needed to make them work in a project or edit. Motion, color changes, crop/pan.track motion;whatever is needed.
You can also go to sundancemediagroup.com-register and download all kinds of veggies. I have about 30 or so just sitting in a folder waiting to go to work for me. Many of them are titling effects. Of course you put in your own titles maybe play around with the timing and motion etc but it's a lot faster than me sitting for hours trying to figure it out.
They're tools to be used!
Hope this helps,
Don

VEG files are simply project files. However, techniques can be shared using VEG files. Use generated media to create the effect and anyone can see how those effects are done. After loading the VEG file, you can add your own media as TAKES over the generated media.

and if you have a cpu with hyperthreading, the main concept codec runs about 20% faster....

for some reason, Vegas runs better wth a HyperT CPU than with a dual CPU...

at the mo, one of my systems, is runnign a stock 2.4gh P4 and i can run 2 sets of V4 and it playes perfectly...

so u dont need 2 cpus to run 2 V4's at teh same time... u can open more... but dont crap out the ASIO drivers if ur using an ASIO comaptible soundcard... it doesnt like it...
You can only run one instance using the ASIO drivers, so make sure yoru second project is runninig standard Soundcard drivers or windows drivers...

"so u dont need 2 cpus to run 2 V4's at teh same time"

Not what I said. You can run 2 (or more) instances on ANY computer. But, the response time WILL be better with 2 CPUs. (basically, the background instance will get more CPU time)

Speaking of AISO drivers...I saw that setting in one of Vegas's preferences. I turned it on and I couldn't drop any clips onto the timeline- got an error message "Cannot play clip, incompatable audio type" or something along those lines. I'm running a sound blaster audigy, btw.

What is AISO and what does it do?

Vegas- External monitor..
 

Hello,

i am trying to get an external monitor to work with Vegas 4.0.. I have a panasonic ag-dv2000 deck i am using.. i have clicked on the little external monitor symbol which is above the vegas video preview window.. My deck is set to DV and Passive on the edit mode.. i am able to capture, and i can see the footage when i capture on the external monitor, but i cannot see the video on the external monitor when playing from the timeline ??

Under video device, i have it set to OHCI IEEE 1394..

What am i missing here ??

thanks,

mike

Settings SOUND right. Mine are set the same and mine does work through the AG-DV2000. How about PTT. Does that work? When External Monitor is on, what shows on the computer preview screen?

Vegas - Distortion when rotating the picture
 

I am using vegas to rotate a picture slightly where the camera was a little crooked.. The rotation is slight enough for the resulting emptiness to still be outside the action safe area (even moreso cause I'm doing a crop to 16x9).

Anyway, with all the settings at Best, I notice some odd distortion - about halfway through the picture vertically there's two small horizontal lines going across the whole picture that are slightly discolored from the rest of the picture. It's quite noticable.

Does anyone know what might be causing this or how to fix it? I could post a sample if necessary but I think that describes the problem pretty much. A little gaussian blur works, but of course that, well, blurs it. :) Is this just a standard thing with image rotation that I have to live with?

Is this distortion on preview - or render. If on render, have you selected Reduce interlace flicker and Force resample? (Both are found under Properties, when you rightclick on the event.)

Hello,

When the external monitor is selected.. It says external monitor in the little Vegas video window.. I just do not see any video pass through to the NTSC monitor (from timeline palyaback)

Mike

It's in render and preview.

I did not select reduce interlace flicker because I actually don't want to deinterlace the footage - or do I misunderstand that function?

Also I have smart resample selected. What will force resample do?

Thanks a lot.

Hello

a bit of an update, i tried the PTT function as Ed suggested, and i got weird results.. it appears to lay video to tape, but when i look at the video it is broken in big blocks and the sound is distorted.. i tried in both machine control and manual.. same result..

Not sure what the deal is here.. am i missing some other setting on the deck ??

mike

I cannot explain in technical terms what Reduce interlace flicker does, but it does NOT deinterlace. That is done by selections you choose in the render dialogue. In my experience Reduce interlace flicker just does what it's called.
Vegas 4 is supposed to resample automatically when an event has changed. I often select Force resample nonetheless, then I'm sure resampling will be done.
Give it a try.

Will do. Thanks for the advice!

Hello,

more of an updat on this situation.. I drug my camera to the editing room, and connected everything.. and all works, i see the external monitor video, i am able to print to tape.. So it is a setting or something may be wrong with my panasonic AG-DV2000.. Any ideas ?/

Mike

See if this refers to the same problem (read the whole thread)

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/S...ssageID=191887

AG-DV2000 and Vegas
 

hello,

i am stumped on this problem..currently vegas is useless to me, as i am unable to Print To Tape or see any external video..

I have a Panasonic AG-DV2000 deck connected via firewire.. i have been unable to use it to view video on an external monitor, or to Print To Tape..
here is what i have been able to do..

machine control seems normal, even on Print To Tape, just no video..
i tried with my Sony DV Camera (Which I do not want to use as my deck) and all works as advertised.. external monitor and Print To Tape Work !!
i tried using the Sony Video camera as my video source to the Panasonic Deck, to see if it would Pass through.. and yes i can see video out..

i tried various settings on the Panny deck, none seem to make a difference.. The edit mode is set to passive and DV, with the input select set to DV..

Any other AG-DV2000 owners have any ideas.. as I am baffled at what to do next..

Mike

Hm, hard to say if that's the same problem. It may be just an inherent problem with rotating footage. I noticed that Premier does a rotation and applies an excessive amount of blur to it when it does. Vegas may be applying much less blur, if any, leaving it to you to get it the way you want. At any rate, I'm not using the rotation as the slightly crooked camera is much less noticable than a horizontal line running through the picture! :)

Not sure without checking every single setting on mine. I know it DOES work with Vegas as I have two of them working with Vegas connected to three different computers.

Rendering in Vegas vs Procoder
 

I was thinking about doing my next project in Vegas- that way I am forced to learn the interface better, etc. My only concern is it's rendering speed for mpg 1 and 2. I currently have worked with Procoder right from the Premiere timeline and am very happy with the speed and quality. I usually renders at roughly 14fps which only takes roughly 2 hours for an hour project.

1.I haven't even tried to render anything in Vegas yet- I heard you have to "register" Vegas's MainConcept encoder before using it- does that mean simply register or is there a fee that is applied?

2. How is the speed of Vegas's rendering? Anyone use both Procoder and Vegas's MPG1 and 2 encoding?

3. If there is a dramatic advantage in speed using Procoder- how is outputting to DV AVI from Vegas then using procoder to convert that to MPG2- Will there be any quality loss?!

1. There is no fee involved.

2. I have nothing to compare with.

3. You can get a frameserver for Vegas at http://www.debugmode.com/pluginpac/frameserver.php so you do not have to create any intermediate avi files if you want to use another encoder than the MainConcept encoder. By using the frameserver you will be encoding directly from the timeline so there should be no "additional" quality loss.

Hans

A friend of mine played Guinnie Pig and tried out Frame Server and when he got the file into Premiere (from Vegas) he had to render the file in Premiere anway. Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose?!