Wow, that's a little expensive for me. Will this work: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

It does have s-video output.

Why would you want to replace your camcorder? I have never heard of anyone's camcorder failing from being used as a A/V bridge.

Improving MPEG 1 Render Video Quality
 

Hi everyone,

I just finished a short film and today I rendered to MPEG-1 (for VCD) straight from the timeline. However, the video quality is terrible - the image is very noisy and there are artifacts surrounding my credits and titles. All of my previous short films have looked fine, but for some reason this new one looks terrible. Can anyone help?

(I have Magic Bullet applied twice to the bus video track. One is set on 'Filmic' for the beginning and the end of the video, and one is set on 'Neo Dark' for the middle section of the video. I thought this was the problem, having two things in the chain. However, I rendered sections of the video again without any effects, and it still looked bad.)

Also, I rendered with everything closed except Vegas 6, and my computer is fairly new. I'm not sure what the problem is.

Thanks,
Dennis

Tony, I have used the ADC Pyro with my Mac and it should also work fine under Windows for your purpose. There might be a few reasons to use this instead of a camera. For one, your camera isn't sitting out on your desk gathering dust for long periods of time and won't be connected to the A/C line where a power spike could hurt it. But probably the main attraction would be that this box has component video output which can drive a monitor at higher quality (if the monitor supports it). That box will is also switchable between NTSC and PAL which might come in handy.

I can't be the only one who thinks it's a pain in the butt to use my camcorder as a converter for my monitor. It's a simple job, so I'd like a cheap peice of dedicated equipment. That way I could keep my camera downstairs and ready to go.

Excellent... I'll have to try that. That should be a cheap alternative to leaving the camera hooked up to the computer.

That is one of the limits of Boris. The advice I've been given is to take the clips and use boris by itself and then you can play the clips in Boris. I haven't tried it but it is a pain.

I expected more from Boris and was let down.

Help with Menu Page DVD Architect 2
 

I created 3 menu pages which are chapter selections, 14 chapters in all.
The 1st two pages havev 5 chapters eachand the 3rd page has 4 chapters.

Now I want to create a home page which is what I want to be displayed on my DVD 1st. This menu page will be my home page and will basically have a picture, a play all button and a chapter selection button.

I tried to create a menu page that links to page 2, but it puts the menu page as page 4 and it links only to page 3.
I dragged it to the top of my project window, without a problem, but it still links only to page 3.
I cant use end actions to link my new menu page with because it does not allow me to link it to page 2.( page to is not an option on the properties window)

I already linked menu pages 1, 2 and 3 in the order I want.

PLEASE HELP ME CREATE A NEW MENU THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO LINK TO PAGE 2 WHICH IS WHERE CHAPTERS 1-5 ARE.

Please help, I'm desperate!!!

Thanks in advance.

Bernard

Thank you Edward. I appreciate the info!

I would have created the main page FIRST. However, just add a new menu and set it to be the first menu that is shown. Then add links to the proper menus or videos to that menu.

Coupla things to view here.
1. Vegas scales media correctly, so if you were to save at 655 x 480 from AE, Vegas will read it right.
But.
2. AE/Adobe prefers scaling vertically, so 720 x 540 is the preferred size from their apps. PITA, it would be better if they correctly scaled, but it works either way in Vegas.

HTH

The MB stuff you're applying likely has a little to do with the image quality, but two things to note.
Vegas doesn't do MPEG 1 well, I'd recommend a third party tool like Procoder or TMPEG.

Second, try crushing the blacks with the Black Restore plug. You'll usually see some improvement.

finally, unless you *have* to use MPEG 1, avoid it. It's so antiquated, it's tough to get anything looking good unless you really reduce saturation and give the encoder a mostly flat, unsaturated image.

Hi Douglas,

Thanks a lot for the reply I'll try those things and get back to you on how it goes.

Cheers,
Dennis

Naming Conventions
 

After using PixelPops for my menu(s) I find they work well in Encore but I know I need to change the names for them to be accepted in Architect.

From what I can gather from the Help and Manual the only accepted "items" are buttons or backgrounds, both with their various sub items. If so how is a video, that is to be used as a motion element, named? Is there any way to look at a template that is included with Architect to see how the structure is established.

Thanks

Jim

Thanks for the help. That puts an end to the mystery for me. :)