Excalibur MultiCam help
 

I purchased Excalibur yesterday and I was playing around with it last night and the MultiCam option is really great.

I do have one question though, all of my camera changes seem to be cuts regardless of what I do.

I tried checking the option that makes "disolve" the default transition. I tried specifying the D and I tried specifying the D with a time factor.

I setup two cameras and named the track 1 and 2. I put markers where I wanted the cuts and named them in a variety of different ways to test things.

With "Disolve" as the default transition
1
2

With "Cut" as the default and "Disolve" as default another time:
1D
2D

With "Cut" as the default and "Disolve" as default another time:
1D00:16
2D00:16

With "Cut" as the default and "Disolve" as default another time:
1D16
2D16

All of these resulted in cuts rather than disolves. Did I miss some setting in Vegas itself or am I totally of in my naming? It is cutting in the right places, it is just not dissolving.

Thanks,
Darrell

Do you have the Automatic Crossfades turned on?

Edward,

Thanks for the reply. I can't remember off hand. I will take a look at that this evening and make sure they are on.

Thanks,
Darrell

Yes, this is necessary because the "dissolves" are created by extending the clip lengths. I just tested it and the dissolves do NOT happen if auto crossfades is turned off. So, just leave that option turned on and all will be fine. (I NEVER turn it off anyway. If I want cuts, I just don't overlap clips.)

Making one myself would be more than I can handle. That artbeats site is perfect! Thanks.

Settings in Vegas's Main Concept Encoder for MPG2 export....
 

I took some time the other day to explor all the tabs in the main concept encoder. Little did I realize the amount of tweaks available. Do most of you keep these at default and only tweak CBR/VBR and bitrate #'s? From the looks of it, it may be the only safe way for me to do any tweaking- the other settings seem above my scope and understanding of mpg encoding.
I know that MPG2 destination file has to be upper-fields first but I noticed the setting was at lower-fields first by default. Can I safely assume that is designating the source material and should not be changed?
Also I noticed there was a video quality slider- what does this do exactly?

I leave most things alone except for bitrate. I make sure the quality slider is at 31 (max) and, sometimes, change the DC Coefficient to 10bit.

MPEG2 for DVD should be LOWER field first, just like DV.

Thanks Edward, that did the trick.

Regarding the field issue I've heard the exact opposite. I asked around when I was having problems with my first DVD and the consensus was that DV is lower first but MPG2 DVD is upper first. However I'll follow your advice and keep it on lower.
I bet you knew this was comming....what is DC coefficient?

If you started with CCE, for some reason you have to pick UPPER first for it to be right. Most others use LOWER first (which is correct). Main Concept, TMPGenc, Ligos, ... all use lower first.

CCE?

Where did this button come from?! *pics inside*
 

Loaded up Vegas tonight and noticed a new button on my master bus control. Wasn't there before- at least not that I noticed. It seems to control where my sound come out of (center/left/right). Btw, I'm using a set a Klipsch Promedia 5.1s and don't have the rears connected right now (so that could explain why they only have configurations available for the front 3 speakers.)

The odd thing is- why and where did this come from?! How do I disable it?!

See picture attached:
http://www.mazdamp3.com/members/Laze...20question.jpg

It is standard. I don't have a 5.1 setup and it's there on my Vegas... I think it's used to select what to monitor....heh.

Maybe I'm loosing my mind then because I saw it and swore it was NEW. Man I really have to get away from this computer sometimes!