It doesn't so much have "issues" as it does "missing features". It is a very stable and very capable program. Do I wish it had end actions? YES. Do I wish it has some other features? YES. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the next version!

Compiling multiple .veg files
 

Hey everyone,
I'm editing 10 games of high school varsity footbal and making a dvd. The easier way I figured out was to make each game an individual project and in the end just compile all of them into one. Is this even possible? This would be really helpful and less stressful on the CPU. Any info I'd like to here. Thanks


-Kay

Layout the individual files with the same track structure (the same number and position of video and audio tracks). To combine, open the first project and then open another copy of Vegas with the other projects. Select all and copy. Then click on the location you want to insert into the first project, at the top most track and paste. I do this quite a bit when roughing up scenes for a film and then putting them together.

Here's how I do many events. Like you, I break different sections into different projects. When a section is done, I render it to a new AVI file. When all sections are done, I create a "final" project in which I import all of the individual AVI files.

Edward,
What are your settings when you export each scene? are you using meg2 dvd quality?

Anyways, that seems like the easiest way... I can't afford to lose quality through renders though ( I know there will be a slight lose ).

Thanks for the tip!


(ps. I still haven't recieved my tsunami manual pdf =P)
your script rocks!!!!! makes my life 10x easier

If I do what Ed does, the intermediate renders are DV format. If I must have absolute best quality, you can frame serve each of the many Vegas projects into a final project that combines them. There may be some limitation of the number you can do that with. I've only done it with 4 or less.

I render to NTSC-DV AVI files. Since nothing will need to be rerendered in the final project (unless you create dissolves between the clips), you will get NO loss of quantity as no additional rendering will be required.


If you purchased and are currently using Tsunami, you have the manual - it installs in the same folder as the program. You should also be able to find it by going to start - programs - tsunami.

The Reset Worked Just Fine.....
 

But afterwards I did whatever I had done and did it again.

If you can pull the windows start bar down you can grab the errant window.

Re-encoding existing MPEG's
 

One point I don't have a firm answer on:

When re-encoding an existing MPEG with the same settings (bitrates, etc), do you take a quality hit?

My eyes say no. Not to say there isn't one, but I don't see it.

Keep it all 16:9 and output to DVDA
 

I have been doing all of my concert pieces in 16:9.

Before I got DVDA, I rendered to a 4:3 avi or mpeg with letterboxing for final output (which was SLOW).

Now with DVD Architect I render out to a widescreen MPEG and make a DVD.

Then I play the DVD and copy to VHS. Voila! Instant letterboxing!

-Tom-

SO QUIT DOING IT!!!

Seriously, the method for "tearing" the windows from the bottom area is to click on the thin line to the left of the window. When you click there and drag, you will get a free floating window. If you hold down the control key while dragging a window, it will prevent it from snapping into the bottom area.

As for what you are doing to get them all below the start bar, I'm not sure.

Yes - you WILL take a quality hit. Any time MPEG is rendered, it must be uncompressed and then recompressed. Now, depending on bitrates used you *may* not be able to visually see it but there IS a hit.

BTW, why would you need to reencode an MPG at the SAME bitrate?

Is the MPEG-2 encoding such that you will get different results each time?

For example. What if I create an MPEG-2 from my miniDV source, then I start encoding that MPEG-2 with the same settings over and over and over again? Would the quality degrade with each iteration (like copying audio cassettes), or ... would the result of each encoding be exactly the same as the next (and prior) encoding, because all the 'information' the compression scheme throws out in the original encoding is already gone, leaving the compression algorithm with no real 'work' to do?

Just curious.

PS - I would also like to see the ability for the end of one selection in DVDA automatically start another selection, without having to use chapter points from a single selection.

If you start with an AVI and render to MPG from that AVI multiple times, you should get the same results. Where you are going to get a quality hit is if you take the MPG file and render to another MPG file. Either go back to the original AVI each time or don't re-render!

I'm still wondering why you would NEED to re-render - especially from MPG to MPG.

And, yes, end actions would be nice.

I hear about a lot of people who receive (original) DVD-Rs that the customer wants re-edited, new titles, etc. So people are always asking if re-rendering files they rip off DVDs will suffer in terms of quality. They can never seem to get their hands on the original source material. Examples include poorly edited or mis-spelled titles in wedding videos done by someone's brother-in-law's cousin.

I get suspicious just blindly accepting 'generation loss' in terms of MPEG encoding, because (in theory) if the first encoding has removed all the 'information' that the compression algorithm needs to throw away to reduce file size, what else is there for multiple encodings to throw away? (Assuming the encoding settings are identical.)

Because the second encode will throw away DIFFERENT pieces of information based on what IT sees.

To re-encode from MPG to MPG, you take a compressed video, uncompress it, and then recompress it. This WILL result in a loss of quality. Whether or not it is visually noticable will depend on the original and new bitrates but, even then, there WILL be a loss.

There are many programs available that will convert a DVD to AVI. However, many people actually prefer to capture to AVI while playing the DVD through a convertor/deck/camera.

Bottom line: you WILL lose quality but it may be small enough to not be noticable.

poor playback in Vegas
 

Having a rough time in playing back Vegas.

I have a new 2.8ghz/800 1gig ram, etc computer,
but I am getting jerkiness/slight freezes in the viewer.
Happens playing both from the timeline or previewing from and media pool. The jerkiness does NOT increase (stays about the same) no matter if I am previewing in full res, or in draft mode.
Running under XP home.

Steve

This is the problem with running M2T natively through Vegas. Our Connect HD product that will ship in January is targeted to fix this very problem. Watch www.cineform.com for product release information.

I have not tried this but it might help, how about dragging your "m2t"s into Vegas and then right after, render them as either a Huffyuv or uncompressed AVI. Use that file to edit with rather than the "m2t"s.
The jerkiness is probably coming from the interpreted frames in MPEG video, Vegas needs to gather information from neighboring frames in "P" and "B" frames in order to display them properly.
Mac people are already doing something similar by using Pixlet or DC30 converted from m2t's to edit rather than MPEG.
Warning the AVI files are going to be much larger than the original mt2 files.

Actually, trying to edit uncompressed or HUFFYUV files will most likely choke the editor as these files require super-fast data transfer and processing.

Here's what I do: two-step approach to editing.

Step 1: Convert all m2t files into small-footprint AVIs and do the edit in your fave software (Premiere Pro in my case.) I convert to PicVideo codec ($99 download) that is only 27Mb per minute at quality level 16 out of available 20. Very nice image quality (subjectively, looks better than any other small-footpring codec I tried), acceptable for confident editing. Make frame size 640x360, so it's even smaller than DV (no choking of the editor - get Real-Time previews all the time) and proportions are the same as in the original 1280x720 file.

Step 2: Once edit is complete, simply replace these source AVI files with the final-render AVIs (make sure file names are the same.) This time I use HUFFYUV codec for m2t conversion, at the original 1280x720 frame size (2Gb/minute). Once source AVIs are replaced with HUFFYUVs, re-open your editor and render the project. Works like a charm in PPRo. (This time you don't need real-time previews, as the edit is already complete; what you need is high quality render, which you will get with lossless HUFFYUVs.)

Conversions can be done in batches, which is quite speedy and convenient - just write your little software program to automate the process (I did) or find some batch software on the web.

Or do it manually :)

Good idea - but tons of source is my problem.
I have close to 100 hours of footage of this project, so I'll need to render in stages, then clean up the drives. Sort of complicates your process. I suppose I can also re-connect in stages.
I guess the best solution is Cineform's new one - so I can capture in my destination's codec. But I can't wait till 1/19! I have a deadline, so i need to be editing as we speak!

Steve

Steven, how about using original m2ts in step 2 of Alex's process, that way you would have the advantage of quicker editing together with space saving? HUFFYUV might be needed in Premiere because it does not handle m2ts directly.

video effects stopped working
 

Hello,
I was putting together a short video using a lens flare across the title text. Everything worked well until I restarted the program later. The lens flare was not working. Then I tried to place a cookie cutter over a video track and it wouldn't show up. What gives? I must have hit something by accident but I can't figure out what.

Please help me!!

Thanks in advance,
Adam

Never mind, I figured it out.
I must have hit that split screen button down on the preview window. Once I clicked on that the video effects started working again. It must just bypass those effects in the preview window.

Thanks anyway!

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel :
Seriously, the method for "tearing" the windows from the bottom area is to click on the thin line to the left of the window. When you click there and drag, you will get a free floating window. If you hold down the control key while dragging a window, it will prevent it from snapping into the bottom area.
-->>>

You know, I'd been wondering how to get my windows back to the free floating state for the better part of a year, but never got around to asking. Thanks Edward!

The Split Screen button is there so you can compare a "before effect/after effect" or two different shots with each other. When you have it turned on, you can click and drag the mouse on the preview window to determine what areas show the before footage and what areas show the after footage. Most of the time when someone says their effects are not working or are working only on PART of the screen, this is the cause.

It's a powerful feature when used correctly.

Video Capture bins vs Vegas bins
 

Newbie question.

so I capture a couple hundred clips, and create bins in the Clip Explorer of Video Capture. Then I want to use all these clips and the bins already created in a Vegas 4.0 project. But I can't find the bins. I see all the clips as files in WinXP Explorer and Explorer in Vegas, but not the bins and the organisation I've already created. Do Video Capture and Vegas set up completely separate and unrelated bin structures?

thanks,
Scott

While I have not tried that particular feature, my understanding is that they WOULD transfer.

Dolby Digital 5.1 Encoding
 

New to this and I just ordered Vegas 4.0+DVD (to beat the supposed price increase... gosh I'm a sucker...).

I've wanted to encode Dolby 5.1 for a while now to create a few trailers for my home theater and for other interesting experiments.

Can someone briefly describe the interface to the encoder and whether you can synchronize 6 channels of, say, .wav files and then encode them?

How does it work?

Thanks!

- GLupien

You can mix in 5.1 surround on the timeline of Vegas. Just change the project Audio settings (File - Properties) to 5.1.

If you have a soundcard with seperate outputs for all 6 speakers, you will be able to monitor during mixing. Otherwise, you can monitor via your normal L+R speakers (which I do and after some trial and error you learn how to do that).

If you want produce a surround audio file (.AC3), you need the software Dolby Digital encoder which is installed with DVDA and will be available in the Render window of Vegas. So all your audiotracks will be mixed to 1 AC3 file, which can be added to a dvd project in DVDA.

Thanks Peter!

So, since I have purchased the "+DVD" version, I should have the software encoder.

- GLupien

Yes. Since you purchased the +DVD version you will have the 5.1 AC-3 encoder.

What I also do is creating Windows Media 9 files which can have 5.1 digital surround sound. The WM 9 encoder that came with the 4b update of Vegas gives you the possibilty to render for webformat including surround sound. You can hear this for example in the HQ version of the short movie ZZZAP I did earlier this year (check the website below in my footer).

Well, in my experience, yes and no.

IF you start in Vegas, open up a bin and click the "capture" icon button to launch Video Capture, you can capture directly into the selected Media Pool Bin.

However, I have not found a way of transferring the entire Capture bin structure into Vegas Media Pool.

Right-click any bin in Video Capture - you'll see the command to Add to Media Pool.

* The command won't be available if Vegas isn't open.

In contrast to Explorer, the bins act as pointers to the original files, letting you organize your media without affecting the original files. The bins in Video Capture are separate from the bins in Vegas. Bins are saved with each Vegas project file and with each Video Capture file.

5.1 mixing can also go beyond the standard keyframed panning within a stereo track...

vegas also allows for a myriad of bus tracks which can be assigned to seperate channels ;)

Why are my DV AVI's only playing in half res?
 

I recently finished a commercial for a local jeweler which needed to be transferred to BetaCam prior to airing on local cable. I finished the edit and output to DV AVI and for simplicity burned it to a CD. Beings it was only a 30 second spot it was only 200megs.
Anyway I get a message from the guy thats doing the transfer to Beta stating the AVI is not the right size. I checked and sure enough, when played in Windows Media player it only plays in half res.
Now the only place I see any sort of setting that seems remotely related to this is under the Vegas Capture options under the Preview tab. It has a check box entitled, "Base DV decoding resolution on preview window size" which is checked. Under it it has, "Allow full-screen file playback via Preview on Device or Record to Device" which isn't checked. They seem related to my problem but beings they are located under the "Capture Options" I'm a bit weary as to if they will help me.

All of your input will greatly be appreciated. Happy Holidays to all!

There is no problem. There is an annoyance though. The Microsoft
DV Codec is setup to default playback DV at half resolution.
Probably for speed reasons.

Althought you can change this I can only find how to do this with
the old mediaplayer and not the new one. However, this player
should still be installed on your system. Do this:

- Start -> Run -> mplayer2
- drop an DV AVI file on the player
- hit pause
- File -> Properties -> Advanced -> DV Video Decoder -> Properties
- Full (...), Save As Default, Apply, OK
- Close
- CLOSE PLAYER DIRECTLY

It might be that the dialog to save it as default will not close or
does some other weird stuff. Try closing it with the X in the right
upper corner etc. Play with it. You will need to close the player
and then open the file again to see if you did it. If succesful it
should remember your setting.

I know. Handy this hidden feature that you can't easily change.
Just the way the Microsoft world works...

Hard drive speed on rendering redux
 

Ok I just tested using RamDiskXP (uses RAM as a hard drive) versus an IBM deskstar 80GB 2MB buffer. The RAM drive should be a lot faster than the IBM (by a factor of 60 or more). My results show that there is a small difference in rendering speeds, but only on renders that would normally take a short time to render. Practically there isn't much reason to pay attention to drive speed unless:
-hard drive speed is a bottleneck (i.e. you can do a lot of streams of RT or want uncompressed) If your drive is really fragmented it could be a bottleneck. If it's a firewire/USB2 drive or if the drive is in PIO mode it could be a bottleneck.
-you spend a lot of money on very small performance increases.

Results:

Testing methodology:
I tried to keep as many factors the same as possible. I used the sample projects and rendered material out (file --> render as...). The render times are as reported by Vegas (presumably it's accurate).

Test 1: Color Correct
The project actually renders faster if you go file-->render as... instead of selectively prerendering. Anyways...

With the IBM drive: :24, :24, :24, :22, :24, :24
With the RAM disk: :21, :23, :21, :23, :21, :21
About a 9.2% difference.

Test 2: Backlit Shadow
I just rendered the loop from region marker 2 to marker 1.
IBM: :46, :46, :46
RAM :46, :46, :46
No difference.

Test 3: Intercutting film and video
I added the gaussian blur filter to all four clips in the project, default settings.
IBM: :51, :51, :50, :50
RAM: :50, :50, :49, :50
About a 1.5% difference

On the CPU-intensive renders (tests 2 and 3) there is practically no difference between the two drives. On test 1 there is a small difference, but probably something you wouldn't notice. Practically speaking, getting faster hard drives isn't worth it. Short renders will show a difference but they are fast renders anyways. For long renders, there won't be a difference. RAM disk isn't really a very practical storage solution so you will need to go with a drive array (RAID). I don't expect that a RAID will perform better than a RAM disk so performance will fall somewhere in between. That makes the performance difference even smaller. However, performance will take a hit if your storage is a bottleneck (see above for the situations where this happens).

Hmm, I'm wondering now if the guy who's doing the transfer opened it up in Windows Media Player and thought it was half res because of that. You can easily see that it IS the correct resolution by right clicking on the file and choosing properties- 720x480 is the listed resolution.

I guess I have to personally talk to the guy I guess to work this out. So...those options I mentioned have nothing to do with this?