Josh,

DMA is very important. Just ignore the warning. I have never ever
had a problem with turning this on (althought in theory it could
lead to problems). If your devices do not support it they will disable
it automatically. So you can go back in your device manager after
the reboot and see which devices kept the DMA flag and which
didn't. By the way, this is not only for harddisk but also for CD
players, DVD players & burners!!

You will notice a whole new different world when you turn on
DMA. It is crucial for audio/video work! I'm pretty sure it will
eliminate your audio dropouts.

HTH!

Vegas EDL Output is HERE
 

Posted by: SonicPJM
Date: 2/27/2003 11:24:53 AM

I've been working on a script that exports CMX 3600 EDLs... there are some limitations but I've had decent success bringing the results into AVID. Of course, once the sequence is in AVID, my success with editing tasks has not been as good ;-).

Get it here: http://www.ayizwe.net/VegasScripts/ExportEDL.js.txt

Feedback is welcome.... Enjoy!

Well, hell, I'll try it! I think it was the tape though, in all fairness. I captured another tape last night, and that one had no drops.

Also, on my media drive (a Lacie firewire drive, 80gb) there is an option to check the "int 13 unit" (there is no DMA enable option). Anyone know what this means?

Int 13 is the BIOs way of accessing a drive. My guess is that is for backward compatability with olde old software, I would NOT turn it on unless you are having a problem with something accessing the drive, in 13 is literally accessing the drive via BIOs (very slooowwww) calls, it is the simplest, yet slowest way of working with a drive. Essentially int13 is what DOS used in the begining to access a drive. IDE still uses int13, but just long enough to initialize the drive from the system to boot form it, then the various IDE controller drivers take over and access the drive via the variosu Ultra-DMA methods.

vegas save question
 

Quick question here.
I saved a 3 minute video in a new folder, using "copy and trim media" with a 2 second heat/tail on each clip.

Instead of cutting everything into little clips like normal, Vegas saved one 3.7 GB file for the video (should only be 600ish MB), and all the assd small audio files.

Can anyone tell me why it's doing this? I test saved another short video and it worked normaly with it.
Thanks

What format was the video file?

If it wasn't DV-AVI, it copies the whole thing instead of the smaller piece.

All my video clip that I capture from tape become ATI files.

Normaly, when I save a project with Copy & Trim Media, it saves 3 files per clip; an ATI file for video, a Sonic Foundry Wave64 for audio, and an SFK file. So if there is 30 clips in the project, there will be 30 of each file type. Plus the VEG project file.
What happened this time, is that everything was saved normaly, except that instead of 30 small files totaling 700mb, I got the one original 3GB file that the all the files originated from when I imported the video from my camera.

Do my files only save as ATI files because of my ATI Radeon video card software?

I've never heard of an "ATI" file. It seems to work fine with "AVI" files captured via firewire with the Vegas capture program. Sounds like a file format problem.

I'm guessing ATI is a perversion of some other file, thanks to my stupid Radeon software.
There's lots of other people out there using ATI video cards... Does anyone else have this situation?

The ATI media software has taken over for windows media player as the default for these files. Right click on your "ati" file, and select "open with" and click "choose program". Make sure the "alway open this ........" box is checked. Double click on windows media player. The next time you explore files, windows will show the correct file format info......

ATI all in wonder
 

Dylan,
On my 8500 DV I never use the firewire port on the "dongle" to capture footage from tape for this exact reason.

I use a seperate firewire card, and you won't have the "ATI" issue.

I've also found it easier to use the "split" in VV instead of using the trimmerfor editing.

Hope that helps or sheds some light on your issue.

Ati has its own proprietary compression codecs that it uses with the TV instant playback/capture features. You should be able to overide these by selecting "NTSC DV" format in both the "file properties" page and the "render to" option menu.

Vegas video 3 - cleaning out old projects
 

Hope this helps someone. In an attempt to regain some of the 10 gigs of space I used off my 19 gig HD, I saved several projects to tape that I had finished and tried to delete them from VV3. I am sure there is an easier method than I use but I have not searched much for it. I went to "C/ Vegas Video" and deleted the files there. Not much cleaning done and hard drive still 1/2 used, After a few days I looked further and cleaned out "My Documents" with very limited success. I finally found an area where even the music from my very first project was still stored. After deleting the unwanted files from "C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Vegas 3.0" I gained back 6+ Gigs. I havn't found (or looked very hard) a way to delete files when you are in VV3. Maybe if someone knows an easier way to delete vegas projects from within VV3 they will reply.
Thanks
Donny

I just delete them off my HD like you, but perhaps I have a better system of saving my files in different directories for different projects. So if I want one project and everything associated with it gone, I just delete that directory. I don't put anything video related in My Documents, or under Vegas Video.

And Don.... Go buy a second HD... Get a 60GB for less than $100. You will be happy, and not have a space problem for at least... a week. ;)

best way to grab stills in Vegas
 

What's the best way to grab good clean stills from video in Vegas Video 3?
Footage was shot with an XL1 in regular mode, not Frame mode.

in Vegas you can change where it default stores temp, pre-render files, audio files & with Veg files you decide ... also when you install V it will have a C/program files/sonic foundry set up folder that you can delete after install ....

if V crashes then it may not delete the current temp video & audio

take control and you decide where to put these folders

in Vegas OPTIONS/PREFERENCE/GENERAL you decide where TEMP should be

under FILE/NEW now check the box that says "start all new projects with these settings " under Video you can change the pre render folder .... under Audio the audio folder ...
when you go to save a VEG you decide where to save project VEGS files ... also when you render out a new clip again you decide where to put it ..

i put all the Vegas folders next to each other ..IE: V temp, V pre render, V capture , V audio, V veg files, V render. i put these folders on all 3 HDrives ... so when i delete a project the folders are easy to find ...

Just above the Video Preview window there is a disk icon for saving a snaptop of the window in jpg or png format. Save png for a lossless copy. Apply any effects you want, set the frame, and snap. For extra deinterlacing, open the clip properties and check the "deinterlace" option.

Thanks Dylan, I use my documents to save still pictures to when I scan them, It's easy to burn them to a CD once I have cleaned them up and don't want to loose them. It is also easy to move them in and out of paint, which is an easy way for me to clean up photos with dirt and scratches. I just thought VV3 may have some delete command that I didn't know about. I was suprised to find the projects stored in C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Vegas 3.0 and not just C/Vegas video?.

Thanks Don, I saw your post after I posted this originally

adding to brians post

make sure you have the preview quality set to BEST when you capture the still ..

the size of the still will be whatever you currently have the preview window set to ...

<<<-- Originally posted by Don Donatello :
the size of the still will be whatever you currently have the preview window set to ... -->>>

I wished this wasn't true, and I hoped they would give us the option to size the photo in the next revision of VV. I was hoping for it in 4.0, but I'm still on 3.0c so I don't know if it changed.

To get the full 655x480 size, make sure you right-click the display window and choose "display at project size". Also, if you want the full 720x480 picture, instead of clicking on the "save" icon, click on the "copy to clipboard" icon. Then open your paint program, start a new picture, and paste it. Once in the paint program, you may want to run a de-interlace filter.

In Vegas 4, all of this got a lot easier, you just have to pick "Best - Full Size" in the peview quality window. There's also a script for Vegas 4 for saving snapshots.

"I was suprised to find the projects stored in C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Vegas 3.0 and not just C/Vegas video"

It is standard windows practice to install programs in Program Files instead of the root directory.

As was said by Don, the file locations used by Vegas can be configured. I've started a new newsletter for Vegas which can be downloaded from www.jetdv.com/tts/TTS01-01.pdf. If you like it, you can subscribe to future issues at www.jetdv.com/tts. The first issue covers the Options - Preferences settings including changing file locations. The second issue (due to be released within the next 7 to 14 days) deals with the settings found in File - Properties. You may find this useful.

Vegas help
 

I'm currently running demo's of Premiere and Vegas and I'm heavily leaning towards Vegas. I was wondering if anyone has heard of a good book out there or what they did to learn Vegas. I know there's no substitute for hands on experience but just thought I'd ask. I like Adobe's "Classroom in a book" series as it includes a cd so that you can follow along in the book so something similar for Vegas would be nice.

Max

Which version are you learning, 3.0 or 4.0? You can go to the Sonic Foundry site and buy a workbook with a CD for learning 3.0. Douglas Spotted Eagle has just written a book for 4.0, which should be available as an e-book in the new few weeks.

In the mean time, you should visit the Vegas Video forum at the Sonic Foundry site.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/default.asp

I've also started a newsletter at www.jetdv.com/tts that will be published roughly twice per month.

Thanks guys, I'll look into your suggestions!

Max

Vegas 4 really looks good from the specs and with DVD appears to be a killer NLE.

Well, Nathan, you'll find that those of us that use Vagas would agree with you 100%--it is a killer NLE. Finally, it has caught up to and surpassed every other NLE out there.

Having said that, let me also say I have not used all other NLE apps. But I have read too many posts by users of every other NLE app that have said that very thing. So I'm just repeating what've heard (read). ;o)

Definately a killer NLE--but DVD architect needs some work. However, its only version 1.0 and knowing the people over at Sonic Foundry they will fine tune it pretty soon.

AARRGH! Crappy previewing in Vegas 3
 

I had Win 98 previously, and my video previews were fine in Vegas Video 3. I'm talking previews from the computer monitor, with no effects, plain old video.

I put in Win XP Pro recently, and now my previews are very stuttery. The playhead will run smoothly across the timeline for various lengths of time (sometimes five seconds, sometimes twenty minutes) and then stop, during which period I can't do anything with the playhead, and after about ten or fifteen seconds, it will become usable again. Sometimes it tells me it was "unable to mix audio, time out," or something like that. If anyone has suggestions, I'd like to hear them. I've been doing the videoguys.com tweaks for Win XP, though I haven't done the ones where you edit the registry yet. . .maybe that's the problem.

Also, is there a way to keep Vegas from showing the actual frames of video in the timeline on the video clips? If so, might this make a difference?

You might check how much memory you have. XP likes lots more memory than Win98 does. The other thing is to check whether your system is XP compliant (are you running Pro or Home); just because you can load it does not mean it will run properly.

You might want to do a search on XP or Vegas. There are a number of posts from individuals who also had problems with XP.

Also, post some information on your system. Its a little hard to offer suggestions without system details.

Color correction on VV4
 

I just finished my first project on VV4. It is a great program and fun to use. Only one thing kept bugging me. When I would apply color correct or brightness/contrast to an event I assumed if I clicked on any point on an event in the timeline it would adjust the color for the whole event. That proved to be wrong. So I clicked on the beginning of the clip to adjust. The strange thing is it doesn't adjust the very begining of the event but quickly fades into the adjusted color. This wasn't a critical issue for this project since I used a lot of crossfades between the events, but could see how this would be too noticeable with a straight cut (without any transition). Is there an easier way of doing this. Most of the time when I have problems I find I'm just doing some simple step wrong.

Thanks

Could it be you had keyframing enabled?

Check to see that the "sync cursor" button beneath the keyframing timeline (inside the FX window) isn't selected...

Dan, your best bet for getting answers to your Vegas questions is to go to Sonic Foundry's Vegas forum: http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/default.asp. Scroll down and select "Vegas--Video Topics". You won't be sorry!

Billy Boy over at the Sonic Foundry Forum has a great tutorial on color correcting.

I'd suggest looking into your DMA settings for hard drive access, if this is coming from an IDE drive. Right click "My Computer" and pick "manage" to get to the device manager, and check the properties on your IDE controllers. You should have Ultra DMA enabled.

Depending on your chipset, you likely need updated drivers. For Intel chipsets, visit http://support.intel.com and get the latest chipset driver package (it's generic and covers all chipsets in the last few years). For Via, find the latest 4-in-one.

Drivers for what exactly? I've updated my video card, (though not the sound card--the website said not to because of problems people had had with their drivers). I have an AMD processor, not an Intel. DMA is enabled.


System Details:

AMD 1600 XP processor (approx. 1 gigahertz)
1024 MB of RAM
NVIDIA Diamond Viper 770D Video Card
Aureal Vortex 8830 Sound Card
WIN XP PRO

Sorry don't know the speed of the C drive--it's whatever came with this computer and I have no idea how to look it up

Media drive for video is a LaCIE 80GB Firewire Drive, 7200 RPM

Anything I left out? Can't think of anything else that would be pertinent.

Here is the key: "unable to mix audio, time out,"

By this, I assume the video is on a firewire drive and NOT an internal drive. Some have claimed that rebuilding the peak files will help solve this problem (F5). Others have mentioned uping the audio buffer from .35 to .40.

If all of these fail, try copying the data to an internal drive and seeing if the problem still exists. If the problem goes away on the internal drive, it is a Windows problem in communicating with the firewire device which may require any or all of the following to fix:

1) A different firewire enclusure (don't know what brand you have)
2) A different firewire card (also don't know the brand)
3) Changing the hard drive to a USB enclosure.

It sounds like you are NOT setting the FIRST keyframe to the correction values. You can make sure you get the FIRST keyframe by clicking on the box that looks like a diamond with a left arrow in it and a vertical line to the left of it. Clicking on that will guarantee you are on the first keyframe. Also, if the box with the little lock is clicked, turn it OFF. Then you can click anywhere on the clip and the keyframe timeline will not follow causing you to create additional keyframes.

A good idea. Thanks.

I seem to remember problems even without audio, i.e. if I removed the audio from the timeline. I'll try it again though.