Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q1Q2)

[Edward Troxel]

Check out http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com for details.

[Mike Moncrief]

Hello,

can you make a 32 bit targa image, with a hole cut into((transparent) and drag it onto the timeline (track above the video) and see the video below through the hole??
If not Targa, whcih file formats will work?? tiff,photoshop etc ??

Thanks,
mike m.

[Jeff Jordan]

Hi folks,

New Vegas 4.0d + DVD Architect user here. I have been through Douglas Spotted Eagle's video training, and there are obviously many, many things I can do to modify my video.

However, just starting out, I only want to render out to DVD Architect w/o really modifying my project at all. I saw nowhere in the videos where he really detailed how to render out for use with DVD authoring software.

I am trying to render using the highest quality and using a DVD Architect 24p widescreen template. The render takes about 1.5 hours. When I go into Architect, it tells me that the video will have to be recompressed, which is strange as the documentation states that if you render the Vegas project in Architect type format, you should not have to recompress.

Also, I will have to render the audio separately. Does anyone have a source I can go to that will take me through this process? My doc. that came with Vegas, the Quick Start Manual, references very high page numbers to refer to for some of my questions(page 270, page 305, etc), which are way past the 100 pages of the quick start guide.

What doc. should I be looking at to accomplish what I am trying to do?

Thanks, Jeff

[Edward Troxel]

If the rendered file is too large to fit on the DVD, it will still have to recompress. How long was this project? How large was the MPG file? When you rendered to AC3, how large was that file? How many/how complicated were the menus?

The absolute SIMPLEST way is to render to a DV-AVI file and let DVD Architect to the conversion for you. Then you can use the slider to adjust the bitrate in order to get everything to fit.

If you want more control, render to MPEG in Vegas BUT use the custom button and change the average bitrate to match the length of your video.

You may want to look at the newsletter I wrote that discusses this topic (don't remember the issue # off the top of my head). Find that issue here: http://www.jetdv.com/tts

[Randy Stewart]

Hi Jeff,
I'm not an DVD-A owner (I use Movie Factory) but I have DSE's book and have a reference for you. Check pages 377-383. The answer to your questions are there. In short, you need to produce an MPEG-2 file (use best quality) before a DVD authoring program can use it. If it's not MPEG-2, it will re-render to put it into that format. Hope this helps.
Randy

[Edward Troxel]

Any format that allows alpha channel should work fine. However, you may have to right-click the clip, choose properties, and then change the alpha-channel option to the proper type.

[Mike Moncrief]

Hello,

Ok, Edward, you nailed it again.. thanks..That is just what i was looking for.. Going into properties and clicking on the alpha channel did the trick..

Thanks..
Mike m.

[Jeff Jordan]

thanks for the info. folks. I will have to get his book since I think it covers more ground than the videos.

I did get the process to work, but the results are terrible. I rendered in Vegas using DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen MPEG-2 format. It then rendered in about 1 hour.

I then brought up the .veg project in architect, and it told me it would have to re-compress even though it was an architect usable file.

I set the bit rate to the highest rate of 9 and it said that it would use 66% of my DVD media. the original matrerial was probably about 45 minutes of DV tape. Also, I didn't even mess with attempting to render the audio as I just wanted to get some "RAW" video out to DVD as I had never burned one before.

It then took over 3 hours to re-compress in Architect, probably because it was working on already compressed MPEG-2 data from Vegas? The results look really, really bad. Lot's of noise, washed out, looks like a VHS camcorder recording from 10 years ago instead of the pristine appearance as it looks coming directly off my GL2.

I'm ordering his book off Amazon as of right now!

[Edward Troxel]

Yes, if it's recompressing a compressed file, it WILL look worse. What happens if you just give DVD-A an AVI instead of the MPEG file? Then it will only be compressed ONCE (by DVDA).

Yes, rendering using the DVD-A presets should create a file compatible with DVDA. And, in fact, they always have for me. However, I've never tried a widescreen DVD.

[Jeff Jordan]

thanks very much for the thread to the training documents. Very good stuff.

I will render a Windows .avi file into DVD-A then compress there and see what happens.

BTW, should a 50 minute DV video that's been captured require 3 hr 10 min. to render an .avi file in Vegas? That's how long the counter tells me this will take.

If that's normal ok, but it seems like a really long time.

I am rendering to a non-system and non-Vegas HDD which is an SATA 10K WD Raptor. My PC uses the Canterwood P875 Intel motherboard, 3.2 HZ EE processor, 2 GB of Corsair XMS memory and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB graphics card.

One other expectation question. Once I do everything right, can I expect the video I burn onto DVD to look virtually as good as the DV source? I understand it's MPEG-2 and compressed from here to Sunday.

I originally thought that DVD authoring was the way I wanted to archive my personal DV footage rather than have to keep my camera close by and attached to my tv for playing back memories, but maybe DVD is more of a convenience storage mechanism than a pristine copy of what was shot???

Can't wait to get Doug's book to get the skinny on all of this.....

[Randy Stewart]

Jeff,
DVD is the way to go. Everyone I've burned looks really good. Much better than VHS and almost as good as the commercial DVD's (I've got a digital 8 camera or I bet it would be as good). As for the rendering...that's normal. In fact, it's faster than I would get with my pokey 866 MHz Dell. There are a lot of factors involved such as processor speed, complexity of the file (transitions, pan/crop, opacity changes, slowmo, other effects, etc.) and show length. Sounds like you are on the right track. By the way, I'd recommend you stay with the templates for rendering except for changing the quality to best under the custom setting. That way you can trouble shoot easier. Hope this helps.
Randy

[John Gaspain]

after editing render a Windows .avi file UNCOMPRESSED( you must go into custom mode) IT will be HUGE but great quality, im talken GIGS here, mega big! or mp2 which is pretty good but still compressed also smaller. Take that and put it into DVD architect.

[Edward Troxel]

You do NOT want to render to UNCOMPRESSED - render to DV-AVI instead. This will be about 13Gig per hour.

As for the rendering time, it really depends on several factors (including your computer)

1) how many effects have been added?
2) how many dissolves?
3) how many titles?
4) how fast is your computer.

In other words, how many sections REALLY need to be rendered?

Also, remember that "time" is an estimate. It could be totally different in the final result.

[Gordon Lupien Jr.]

What is the simplest way to create a video sequence from still images, such as JPEG files from a digital camera, in Vegas?

Thanks!

- GLupien

[Randy Stewart]

Hi Gordon,
Vegas is great for doing this. Load your images on your computer in one file (digital camera, scan, etc.). Number them in the order of you want them to show up in your show (use 3 places - 001, 002, etc., to rename each file). Now, open a new file in Vegas. Go to options>preferences>editing tab and change the new still image length to 8.00 seconds (my preference). Check the automatically overlap multiple selected media box, then in the cut to overlap conversion, make that 2.00 seconds. Click apply and close the window. Now go to your media bin and click on the add media button. Navigate to where your pictures are and highlight them all and drag them in. Now just click on one of the pictures (they should all highlight) and drag them to the timeline. Everyone one should be the same length with a two second overlap with the crossfade transition already loaded. Now you can edit at will. This saves much time. Pay attention to your aspect ratio of each picture, add some pan/crop, titles, music, etc. Hope this helps!
Randy