Bob, take a look at this thread. There are some links in my post which help explain progressive mode and interlacing.

Hugh,

You need to select pan/crop for the clips that you have on the timeline, then right click in the pan/crop window (over the video thumbnail or workspace) and select Match Output Aspect. This will crop the clip to match the 16:9 output aspect ratio. You can move the crop window up and down as needed to get the best framing.

If you are outputting to a 16:9 external monitor, everything should look fine. If you are outputting to a 4:3 external monitor, the video will be distorted. You can display a letter box on the 4:3 external monitor by simply changing the project video properties to NTSC DV (ie. not widescreen). This will show black bars on the top/bottom of the video just like on a 4:3 TV.

Randall

I have gone into the Wave in soundforge and the pop is there, only in one of the 6-channels (that's how I know it's a bug).

I am using an Audigy 2 Platinum. Again, this is rendering and the sound card should have no effect.

A really short fade is already there by default. I can try doing it manually. It's also random, so I'd have to do it for every single clip. Like yesterday I re-rendered the section and no problem. Earlier it was a different clip.

As far as I can tell it's only this project (which is a 20-minute clip with about a dozen audio tracks and probably 100 clips), but if I ever replicate it on a smaller one maybe I can isolate the problem.

But bottom line is the source file does NOT contain the pops and the render SOMETIMES does (not always). So it's unmistakably a bug.

Im sorry i couldnt help anymore, but it seems that its the source which is causeing this.. now what im ean by that is that the source files are affected for some reason... if you CANT see the pop in soundforge, obviously its not in the "actual" source file, but if you look deeper it may something else...

have you tried defraggin your HDD? could be that the source is sittin on a damaged sector.... as i havent come across the issue as i am using the same card you have...

maybe defragging will help, maybe not, but at this time, its all i can think of...

Only benchmarks for Vegas Video between an AMD and a Pentium processor will matter. Benchmarks vary between programs since some are optimized for one processor or just happen to be faster on a certain processor. If you are doing encoding (mpeg2, divx, mp3), then the Pentiums have a huge lead over AMD processors. I don't know about rendering. I suspect VV would render much faster at best quality (32-bit floating point?) since the pentium processors are faster at FP calculations. However, rendering at best quality is a waste of time. A Vegas Video benchmark is what you really need though.

If you want the fastest processor possible, then it is clearly going to be an overclocked pentium (2.4mhz or 2.6mhz at 800FSB stock). The added cost of overclocking (better cooling, quality power supply, quality RAM, quality case, quality motherboard, thermal grease) will be about equal or less than the cost of getting a 3.2mhz pentium over the 2.4mhz while offering much better performance. The 2.4 and 2.6 processors can be pushed to around 3.5mhz (and the increase in FSB speed also makes things faster). Instructions are on various websites.

AMD processors can be easier to overclock. It depends on which CPU you have and which motherboard you have. You will want to make sure your computer is well cooled. Ars Technica, ocaddiction.com, overclockers.com would be places to get some advice and tutorials on this. This is probably a better idea than getting a pentium processor, since that would require a new motherboard and maybe new RAM.

A RAM upgrade could also be a better idea if you are running 256MB of RAM.

That's an interesting idea. And that would explain why it's apparently random, i.e. as files get shuffled around and moved on the hard drive, the problem goes away and comes back with other clips. I'll scandisk the drive and see what happens.

The only reason I might doubt this is that the pop is only in one of the six channels, even though the clip is panned so as to be audible in all of them. But that could mean that the problem is with the hard drive when writing the rendered wave files, as opposed to when reading the source clips.

There've also been problems with crashing during a render (I mentioned this in another thread), and a total system crash occasionally when I open a file. They could all be related to the hard drive (a 250 GB firewire drive).

hmm.. now THAT is interesting.. 250GB is huge and on a non partitioned allocation may cause probs...

at 250gb, i would personally partition it into 2 sections.

personally i use 2 120gb drives fpr media and 1 80gb drive for audio, materials and other crap

going back, i use one 120gb for source & one for finals. Its faster during render and if one crashes (which HAS happened) i dont lose all my work...

seems that the reading is being corrupted during the render, and considering you mentioned these were large files, i do not doubt that the HD is having issues buffering or even reading a sector.

the largest single file i have ever used is 12gb, i wont go higher as it causes issues and instability...

Video Card
 

I purchased ACEDVIO-Vegas Video bundle recently.

Vegas works acceptable in a PIII 1.2 with on-board Sys 16Mb video card, 1GB RAM and a 20$ PCI firewire card.
When paying back a clip in the timeline (both in window and the DV Deck) the picture is jerky but is easy to trim and configure the clip.

I set up a new machine with:
ASUS P4G8X, PIV 2.4GHz, 512RAM, Nvidia GEForce4 MX440 128RAM
Unlike the other machine, when I try to play backa clip it is not continuous, it plays and stops enery second or two. the same thing happens when you jog through a clip making it hard to trim and select the piece of video to edit.
When the clip is rendered everything is fine. Same thing happens when printing to tape.
Is this a RAM problem?
is this a Video card problem?
I understand this is a gamer card, What other chances do I have?
Matrox Millenium 650P?
Parhelia?
Geforce4Ti4600?

Thanks in advance
Carlo

The files themselves are not that large, at least not the wave files. There's just a lot of them. It could be a read problem during render, but then why would only one of the 6-channels have the problem while the others are fine? More likely I think it's a problem when writing the rendered file. And since the rendered files are getting moved around and rewritten an awful lot, that would explain why it appears to be random.

Anyway once I finish backing up this drive then I'll repartition it I suppose. The only frustrating thing is that Vegas is the only piece of SW thus far that has had any problem on this drive. Even Premier (which I can't stand, by the way) is fine with it.

The first thing I would check is whether DMA is active on the hard drives. If it is NOT, you will get what you described. DMA MUST be active for video.

Other possibilities are IRQ conflicts, possible need for updated drivers........

could be access speeds (considering the amount of files your using) and the fact thet vegas likes to mix and match which files it plays thru buffers or directly off HDD....

I usually like to keep 3 stereo tracks for most projects... 3 stereo busses for each 5.1 channel.

this keeps it "neat" i dunno, but it seems vegas is having issues with latency or drive access times...

Carlo,

Is your media on an external firewire drive? If so, there are known problems with some external firewire drives and Vegas.

Hard drives are ATA 133 7.200 rpm on a PCI card. Worked well with previous system. If play back was the problem it would give me no playback when rendered and printed to tape.

Again, the problem is only when I try to do playback of a clip on the time line or trim window, either in the preview window or the DV machine.
When I render the clip to another file and put it in the timeline, playback is perfect either in the preview or DV machine, as is print to tape.
Thanks

One more time-Thanks Edward!!!
 

I said it in another place but I'll say it again, THANK YOU EDWARD!!!!!!!

Tsunami + Excalibur makes editing almost fun :-)

For those of you who use Vegas, you've got to get Eds newest creation, Tsunami-help tools and artisic tools that make life sooooo easy, that now I think I really can teach my old dog some new tricks. (like how to edit)
Don

Can Vegas Soften Images?
 

Can Vegas recreate the soft images like that created by using a Softare filter? I am aware of "Quick Blur" and "Glow" functions, but I am looking for something a little more like the effect produced by the high priced Zeiss filters.

Soft images as in like a soft focus? Simple, duplicate your track, add a gaussian blur on the top track, then lower the opacity to roughly 50%, render, and your done...instant soft-focus. :)

The best part about Vegas is it supports compositing so I can re-create certian effects I use often in image-editing via Photoshop.

There's also some new tools that will perform this action and many more tasks being released soon from Zenote. If you know anything about the BigFX tools, this is the same tools being released for Vegas.

Southern California Vegas Users Group
 

The Southern California Vegas Users Group - August Meeting is:

Tuesday - August 19th, 2003

Time: 7:30 p.m.

The SCVUG is open to all Vegas Users, Worldwide!

We hold Monthly Meetings in the SoCal Area in which we conduct Vegas Trainings, Vegas Products Demonstrations and Member Presentations. The meetings are Free! And we usually raffle away Valuable Sonic Foundry and Third Party Vegas Editing Products at our monthly meetings.

At this meeting we will be Demoing Edward Troxel's New Vegas Scripts Software "Tsunami". And, we will be giving away a copy in the raffle!

We will also be Demoing Gary Kleiner's New Vegas DVD Training Set.

Come Join in on the SCVUG Group Camaraderie.

For more info and details - please contact me.


Jay Mitchell


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoCalVegasUsers/

Excellent! I like the look of a soft filter, but I would rather have the flexibility of doing the job in post!

Thanks.

Really- I heard BigFX is a pretty good set of filters...do you know when it's being released for Vegas and/or where I can read about it?

They are being released by Zenote. No dates given yet - still in beta.

Titles "Being Written" Effect
 

Hi,
I work with Vegas 4. I'm trying to create titles that appear that
they are being written out in long-hand while the viewer is watching. Anyone know how to do this?
Dave.

Someone else might have a better solution, but, I seem to remember a veg file at the sundance site that allowed you to do this.

Previewing to external monitor- what a surprise!
 

I just finished editing the first part (ceremony) of the most recent wedding video I'm working on. I decided to break out the camera tonight and connect it to an external monitor (television) to see how it looks. Let me tell you...I'm glad I did!
It looked terrible, the colors looked so good in the monitor window on my computer but turned out too rich (too dark and overly saturated) on the TV monitor. About 80% of my footage needed HSL adjustments along with some Levels and Color Balance tweaks. I had no clue the tweaks I made "in-camera" turned out like this on the screen. On camera A (DVX100)I purposely cranked up the black pedestal and upped the chroma level to try and match camera B (GL-1) super saturated colors. Apparently my LCD on my camera isn't very accurate either. UGH

On a good note it only took about an hour to sort thru the clips on the timeline one by one and make the necissary color adjustments. I rendered out the sequence of edits to one long AVI file (which took quite a bit of time, maybe the color adjustments made lengthened the render time) played it back...now it looks washed out and low-contrast in the vegas preview window but looks great on the TV monitor. I recomend everyone to make use of the preview to external monitor you might be surprised at what your footage REALLY looks like!

I have never trusted the on camera LCD for anything but framing and the computer monitor is even worse. I have 3 different systems I edit on and none of the monitors shows the same. The worst is the laptop, the best is my primary system with the dual monitors but I still use a TV with the camera pass thru. My old NTSC monitor died-proper burial has taken place :-(
Don

yeah, with the monitor "monitoring" it is a little darker with alot less contrast....

one thing i do as i use 2 LCD's in post is view the footage as its being captured.

this way i will have a fairly basic idea as to where to keep my colour levels when wirking with effects and colour corrections...

the DVX is an awsome camera and what your doing seems to defeat the purpose of its existance.
IMO i think you should try to match camB to the DVX footage in post or use the footage as supplemental to the DVX instead of tryin to match the 2 by using effects and slow mos from cam b with the main footage on cam a.

Vegas4 has awesome colour correcting capabilities, have you read the supplemental manual? It literally matches colours and saturation levels from differnt cams...
there are also projects which demonstate film/dv interchaged footage...
all these can be found on sonic foundrys site.

Here's one way to do it:
http://home.hesbynett.no/saltor/_test/write2.wmv

I don't think Vegas can create a properly animated write sequence, so some sort of trick is needed. Look for the veg file Harry mentioned. I've heard about it, but never seen it.

I had to use my GL-1 as a reference beings the settings I chose turned out so terrible. I shot an earlier wedding using F1 mode and it lacked contrast- the blacks looked dark grey. I used that info and adjusted the blackpoint. I also upped the chroma- which I never should have done trying to get that highly saturated image the GL-1 produces. One I actually prefer for wedding videography. I know the DVX is far superior of a cam to the GL-1, it was just an instance where the GL-1 footage turned out better due to my idiotic tweaks in-camera on my DVX.

I'll soon have to learn the more complex color correction tools in Vegas. Right now I'm only working with color balance to fix bad white balance.

Glen,

I tried what you suggested, and it looks like I have introduced soon aliasing/deinterlacing to the higher motion portions of the video. I believe the two video tracks were aligned correctly. as far as any still frames go, the effect looks great, but when I play the video, it looks a little rough (particularly the part fore mentioned).

Brad

Did you pre-render it?

I actually rendered a 30 min episode. It took about 4 hours with a 800MHz FSB 2.8GHz P4 PC.

That depends on how your footage was shot. Vegas can do
de-interlacing (no idea how it looks, since I always shoot in
"progressive" mode)

What do you mean exactly by aliasing/deinterlacing- they are two totally different things. Describe what you see the best you can. Posting a sample clip would be most beneficial for us.
I can't imagine what problems you would have by simply applying a gaussian blur @ 50% opacity to a duplicated track/clip. Unless of course maybe your footage is a frame off sync. A good way to get them in sync is to double click one of the tracks to create a selection the total lenght of the track then drag the other clip over that area to snap to the guides from the selection.

What format did you render out to?

Tsunami for Vegas 4.0d
 

Ed is there a site we can visit to find out more about Tsunami? Is it officially released yet?

I used the exact technique you just described to create a duplicate track. The original footage was all recorded in Frame Mode (GL2), and the softening effect was rendered to an AVI file (Interlaced). Should I have rendered a progressive AVI video?

I'm not sure how to post an example, but I would describe it as an increased interlacing artifact. As one of the actors legs is kicking up and down (with respect to the NTSC monitor's horizontal resolution), there are more "unrepresentative" horizontal lines related to the true edges of the leg. The original video was without the obvious interlace effect.

Yes. The official Tsunami site is at http://www.jetdv.com/tsunami which provides a brief description of each tool, a video demonstration, and a buy link. There is also a review of Tsunami at http://www.fastforwardclub.com/Artic...ws/Tsunami.htm

Tsunami was officially released at the end of last week. The weekend was spent killing a few bugs in the purchasing system. Things seem to be working smoothly now.

Make sure your project is set to progressive and you output as
progressive. Also right-click on the clips and check to see they
are interpreted as progressive. Does that help?

That helps a lot. It didn't really hit me that I was rendering to an improper format until I responded to Glen the last time. I have a dedicated brain cell for pointing out my blatant mistakes, unfortunately, it's on cold medicine (rest assured that I’ll have a new excuse when I’m feeling better).

Thanks, and I will report back at least once more after I confirm that this was where I went wrong.

Did you re-install your Windows with the new hardware? Even
though it might work it might also have some corruption somewhere.
With such a major change you will want to re-install Windows.

Again, make SURE DMA is checked for your drives!

My "soften" technique is a little different. Duplicate the video onto 2 tracks, and set the top layer to "screen" (for the composition mode" and then add a small blur to the bottom layer, and then either take the brightness down to -10 or take the track level down until it's about exposed right, since setting it to screen makes it brighter. I also always apply color curves to the top, bump up the saturation on the bottom layer, and apply a lot more color correction stuff. I just rendered a 3 minute video last night, and it took about 3-4 hours to render (because I had so much color correction stuff on it) on my slow 1GHZ athlon with 512MB ram.