I'm trying to render a short movie to a wmv using Vegas 6. It keeps giving me an error when it tries to take on a still (screen grab that I altered in Photoshop) that I incorporated into the video. Does wmv9 not do well with jpg images, or is there something else going wrong?

WMV should not have anything to do with it. Vegas is having issues as you are describing it (you are using a Vegas export to WMV, right?) If you cannot resolve it, try creating a DV-AVI and using the Windows Media Encoder directly (a free download from Microsoft at their WindowsMedia section). I also find that WME encodes better than most of the NLE plug-ins.

George, a question for you: when another, dedicated compression software like Sorenson Squeeze for example is doing a WinMedia compression, is it using the actual Windows codec or one that they (Sorenson in this case) develop (or alter) themselves? Or is it the original Microsoft codec, all Sorenson provides is better ways of tweaking the compression process?

Bottom line: will I be better off using Squeeze or WinMedia Encoder? Or in case I am compressing DV-AVI for a DVD, should I use Adobe Encore or Sorenson, since it's a specialized software?

Thanks,

George, a question for you: when another, dedicated compression software like Sorenson Squeeze for example is doing a WinMedia compression, is it using the actual Windows codec or one that they (Sorenson in this case) develop (or alter) themselves? Or is it the original Microsoft codec, all Sorenson provides is better ways of tweaking the compression process?

Bottom line: will I be better off using Squeeze or WinMedia Encoder? Or in case I am compressing DV-AVI for a DVD, should I use Adobe Encore or Sorenson, since it's a specialized software?

Thanks,
Almost all of the NLEs and Sorenson use the MS WME codec plug-ins from what I have installed. But the optimization is different. For example, my NLE only seems to do single pass as default (but you can create WME profiles to tell it what to do). Squeeze probably does very well, but I have never seen it. Their reputation leads me to believe what they do would be good for most of what you might need it for. WME gives you lots of control, but it has lots of "knobs and buttons", so can be difficult to determine just what to optimize. But some of the default templates are really good for streaming stuff. But definitely use dual pass VBR with it for the best results.

You were so right, George; it turned out to be the video clip below the jpg that caused the problem. The thing that had me confused is that I could render to mov, mpg1, and mp4. It gave me the error on wmv and avi.

WME? I've never heard of it. Will check it out! Thank you.

The encoder is a link on this page
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/default.mspx

which links here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/default.mspx

I included the first link because it is fun.

Hey, thanks for the links! Very kind.

This is OT but you live in the same town as my sweet friend who's trying to get into the bigtime with Bluegrass. (Wait...is there such a thing as bigtime Bluegrass? ;) www.honideaton.com. Maybe you'll hear about her someday.

Hey, thanks for the links! Very kind.

This is OT but you live in the same town as my sweet friend who's trying to get into the bigtime with Bluegrass. (Wait...is there such a thing as bigtime Bluegrass? ;) www.honideaton.com. Maybe you'll hear about her someday.
Now I know of two Bluegrass folks here. Bob MacIsaac is in Cedar Hill and next town over (know him from the SCCA first). How would of thought that just minutes out of Atlanta was such a bluegrass hotbed?