Vegas Video discussions from 2005 (Q1Q2)

[Rob Lohman]

It sounds to me like he wants to have motion menu's and when
the playback is finished it automatically goes to the next menu.
Or perhaps after a timeout?

I have no idea how to do this though, haven't played too much
with DVDA yet....

[Rob Lohman]

which version of Vegas again?

Sounds like a bug, so why not simply delete the files with the
Windows explorer? Just as easy and garantueed to work! <g>

[Bob Safay]

Rob, that is exactly what I am trying to do. Part 1 automatically goes to part 2 and then to part 3. I thought I had it figured out but still no good. Dan, I could not figure out how to make the end of one file go to a menu. Bob

[Rob Lohman]

Does the movie for the motion menu have an end action option?
If so what happens if you point that to the next menu?

[Graham Bernard]

which version of Vegas again? V5b

"Sounds like a bug, so why not simply delete the files with the
Windows explorer? Just as easy and garantueed to work! <g> "

. .er yeah . . but maybe I'm doing something wrong? Maybe when I see an option to select "DELETE/RENAME". . I think "Cool, I get to change my mind about the 200 clips I just batch captured AND from within AdvVidCap! Excellent!" that's the reason and until I know otherwise - with someone "testing" this out I can go away and fix it with glue and cello. .. But, Rob, hope springs eternal . .yeah? :)

Grazie

[Tony Hall]

Let's say that you've got a second computer by your desk and you want it to process about 5 hours worth of footage before you even start editing it. You've set it up to crop, change levels, change the color and other effects. The footage is going to take about 4 or 5 days to render.

When the footage is at about 95%, it crashes and after 4 days of rendering you have nothing. The file that it has been rendering is unusable. This has happened to me twice now and as we speak I'm looking at Vegas stuck at 63% on my other computer. It's been at 63% for about a day. I wish there was a way to salvage the 63% that it's rendered.

The only thing that I've observed is that it's better to break your footage down into smaller chunks and render them simultaneously. That way if there's a corrupt frame in some footage it's rendering, it will only kill one of your renders.

[Rob Lohman]

The problem is not in particular with Vegas (although you have a
specific problem there that it crashes) but with the files it creates.
This is basically a known issue (in the "professional" world) with
movie formats like AVI/QuickTime etc. When something crashes
during rendering the file is usually lost (although some programs
can fix that, give the free www.virtualdub.org a try).

This is one of the reasons most serious work on film is done on
frame sequences where each frame is imported/exported as a
still. So then you can just replace frames 12.000 - 13.000 or
replace faulty rendered frames and continue where you left off.

You can do this in Vegas as well, but that has two downsides:

- it isn't natively supported by Vegas so you need to us their script which is much, MUCH slower

- you need to re-assembly the files as well (which takes additional time)

I would indeed render seperate segments and combine those
in a final render.

Just a last question: are you up to date with the latest version
of Vegas? What operating system are you running?

It might also be a hardware problem where some components
become to hot etc. Disable any running virus scanners and things
like that as well.

Good luck!

[Rob Lohman]

I know for sure there was a new plugin for Vegas with some
noise reduction stuff in there, but I can't seem to find it (even
though I know I downloaded it myself).

The next best thing:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=27923

Your best bet would be to get VirtualDub (which is free) and
run those noise plugins, see what happens.

[Rob Lohman]

Hope springs eternal? Yeah, definitely <g>

Perhaps try 5.0d? I doubt it is fixed, but who knows!

[Edward Troxel]

Try here: http://mikecrash.wz.cz/

[Edward Troxel]

Select the menu.

On the right side, go to the "End Action" property for the menu. It will be set to HOLD by default. You can change it to LOOP if you wish the menu to loop. However, you want to change it to "Activate Button"

In the Timeout field, enter the length of the menu video.

In the Button field, select the button you wish it to activate after that background movie completes.

[Rob Lohman]

Exactly the one I meant Edward! Thank you very much!!

Philippe: give that baby a go!

[Glenn Chan]

If you have hardware problems (CPU or RAM overheating) then you could have the problem you describe. I don't think Vegas normally crashes while rendering.

To test for hardware problems:

STEP ONE: Stress test with Prime95.
Prime95
Prime95 is a distributed computing program that tries to find certain prime numbers. Its 'torture test' stresses your computer with mathematical calculations and checks the output against known results. This makes prime95 a good diagnostic for instability problems from your CPU and your RAM. Download it from:

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Run the “torture test” through options --> torture test --> Ok
Prime95 will stop immediately once it detects an error, and continue indefinitely if it does not. I suggest running Prime95 overnight as you do not need to watch this program run. Prime95 will log errors in results.txt in the installation directory. The icon will also turn from red to yellow when it detects an error.

If prime95 does not find errors overnight then you likely do not have a hardware problem. You can run memtest86 to be doubly sure (not really necessary).

STEP TWO:
*If* Prime95 detects errors, then try the following two programs:

Motherboard Monitor (MBM)
This program monitors your computer's temperatures and voltages. It can help you pinpoint where your problem is (bad power supply, overheating CPU, or other). You want to get readings when your system is being stressed, so run MBM with another program like any recent 3d game or prime95. Download it and install it off:

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/download.html

Interpreting readings:
Right click the MBM system tray icon and click on settings. Click on high/low. The voltages (+3.3, +5.00, +12.00) should stay within 5% of 3.00V, 5.00V, and 12.00V. The CPU and 'case' temperature should be under 60C.
If your CPU or "case" temperature is erroneous, then those parts are overheating. (case = northbridge chip. Your northbridge chip has a heatsink on it on your motherboard, it likely needs to be re-installed/re-seated properly.) If the voltages are low then your power supply is likely bad.

*To get Motherboard Monitor working, you may need to know what motherboard you have. The utility CPU-Z can help you determine what model your motherboard is:

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

STEP THREE:
Memtest86
Memtest is a good diagnostic tool for RAM. Run this if you are having problems with Prime95 (i.e. Your computer reboots or if Prime95 is finding errors). Decide whether you want to create a boot CD or boot floppy and download the right version off

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Use the installer to create a boot CD/floppy. Memtest will start testing immediately after you boot from the floppy/CD you have created. You do not need to press anything. If your computer did not boot into Memtest, you may need to adjust your BIOS settings so that the CD/floppy boots before the hard drive. The setting for this is usually named "boot device priority". If you do not find this, then refer to your motherboard's manual.

A single pass (look under the pass column) should be sufficient to check for RAM problems. Look under the errors column/listing to check if there are any errors. If not, hit escape to reboot and remove the CD/floppy. I recommend you start Memtest and leave it running overnight as it may take some time to complete 1 pass on old systems.

The approach above should catch your hardware problems like 95% of the time. If they don't find anything, then I would look at a software/bugginess problem. Let us know what comes out from those tests.

[Philippe Gosselin]

Cool !!!


Thanks guys , now just to make sure I don't mess thing up I exactly do I install these plugins. Tried to search for thread about that but didn't find one.

Thanks again.


PS: Rob if you read this I have a OT question. Are you planning on making a second edition to the ladyX project , I'd love to make one :)

[Dennis Vogel]

Similar to John, I was going to suggest some kind of watermark on part of the video with a serial number of sorts that you can track. Then if number X pops up somewhere else you know which person to ask about it.

Good luck.

Dennis