Vegas Video discussions from 2006 (Q1Q2)

Dan Euritt · April 27th, 2006, 10:51 AM

good advice in this thread.

beyond that, and kinda o.t. for the thread topic... jeff, when you format a big hard drive to be used strictly for huge files like video, it's best to format it with the biggest block size available.

Kevin Crockett · April 27th, 2006, 05:15 PM

I just finishing capturing 3 tapes from a recent shoot and I'm encountering something I haven't seen before.

I have scene detection enabled but vegas is only "seeing" 3 separate scenes on each tape ( after capturing I have three very long scenes that cover different aspects of the production).

I know the camera was paused more than three times. I can work around it by capturing manually but I really want to avoid that.

The video was shot on an XL-2 at 60i.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mike Kujbida · April 27th, 2006, 05:33 PM

The usual problem in circumstances like this is that your camcorder's clock wasn't set.

Mike

Jim Hawley · April 28th, 2006, 02:18 AM

Yes, I do have quite a few stills in the project, but it seems to freeze on different ones each time. I read in one post there could be an overheating problem with the hardware...is that right?

I am rendering on a Dell Latitude D800, 512 memory, 40gb and 300 gb hard drives. I have set all the Vegas temp dirs to the larger drives (not C:).

I have tried prerendering portions where the freeze occurs and then rendering the whole project, but no luck.

I am using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum +DVD 6a.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks again,

Jim

Derek Grimes · April 28th, 2006, 06:33 AM

I am doing a multicamera project. I used 2 xl1 shots and on playback in vegas, they only playback @ around 18 fps. All the others (4 other cameras) are playing back at normal speed. I am just curious why only the xl1 footage is doing this. It renders fine. Just in vegas is where the problem is. All the specs are the same in the video properties. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

PS...these rates are when the tracks are on solo, obviously

Chuck Volm · April 28th, 2006, 06:36 AM

I've been wondering how to set a "Play All" mode along with my menu based format in DVDA. Currently I used two menus with a short 20 sec. clip as a background, one menu for the pre-reception and one for reception, etc. I have them navigate to the item to view, and so on.

Is there a way to do it?

Don Bloom · April 28th, 2006, 07:32 AM

If you are using DVDA 3 you can set an END ACTION from the 1st clip to the 2nd-open the first clip set end action to point to the 2nd clip and you're all set.

Don

Don Bloom · April 28th, 2006, 07:35 AM

If you are seeing this in the preview mode its possible that the footage has some type of effect applied or the opacity is lowered (easy to do accidentally) and in the preview mode Vegas will drop the frame rate to keep up with the effects. Check to make sure you have no effects or that the opacity is lowered but it should render out OK and play at full speed anyway.

Don

John Rofrano · April 28th, 2006, 07:57 AM

Just to expand on what Don said, if you have two pieces of media (Media-1 and Media-2) and you want to add a Play All button, just copy and paste the Media-1 button and rename it Play All. Then change the End-Action to point to Media-2. You will now have three buttons, one labeled Play All that starts with Media-1 and chains to Media-2 and then one each for Media-1 & Media-2.

~jr

Jim Hawley · April 28th, 2006, 08:51 AM

Call off the hounds, I fixed it...woo hoo!

Okay, I have learned my lesson about stills and DPI. I read many postings about not needing to use a high DPI with stills but did not think it would hurt anything if I did.

As soon as I converted all images from 600 to 150 dpi, not only was I able to render (finally), but I could actually preview without intermittent stopages. And I don't notice and degredation in image quality, even with a lot of zooming.

Whew...now maybe I can get some sleep...zzzzzz.

Peter Jefferson · April 28th, 2006, 12:21 PM

Another option apart from teh "end actions" as mentioned here, is to create a playlist.
Playlists are brilliant for bits and piece lije this however, you shoudl note that each titl set you insert (ie every individual piece of media) CANNOT extend its chapter listing past itself.. as an example, youve got 4 differnt MPGS. Prep, Ceremony, Photoshoot and reception.
Now when u import these into DVDA, u CAN creat scene selection scenes for EACH MPG, BUT, the only way to create ONE Scene selection for ALL MPGS you need to do it manually, which if anyone has used Encore, will know its a fiddly bitch to deal with.

What ive been doing if my projects require, i set them out this way (rare) is inport all material and create a play all button using a playlist,
then for each clip, i name it "play preparations, Play ceremony, play photoshoot etc etc" people then think that this are the chapters.
Then i put marker in every 10 moinutes or so and i write down the "title listing" on the back cover.. its not the best way to do the whole kit and kaboodle, but i create DVDs in less than half an hour using this method. If i did it the other wya, then id be there all day...

Derek Grimes · April 28th, 2006, 01:22 PM

Is there one multicam program that is better than another? I currently have excalibur and its okay but it seems to be tempermental. I really do not like the way the tracks have to be named. Just curious if they are about the same or there are advantages to them

Thanks

Jim Hawley · April 28th, 2006, 01:43 PM

I just want to be able to move the volume points with more control. The mouse is a pain. At the very least it would be nice to use a key to hold a point's X or Y coordinate while I drag it with the mouse. Ideally I would like to move a point with the keyboard arrows.

Any tips?

Thanks,

Jim

Don Bloom · April 28th, 2006, 02:18 PM

There is UltimateS by Vasst however I don't use it. I've been using Excalibur since it came out and frankly I've never really had a problem with it. then naming of the tracks is a simple as 1,2,3...that's really all you have to do. As for it being tempramental sometimes if I've been running my edit station for too long without restarting it (talking about days not hours) Excalibur can be a bit slow to open but then so is Photoshop so I just shutdown and reboot-no big deal for me.
Perhaps you could explain in a bit more detail why you feel Excalibur is tempramental and maybe it's a simple fix.
Don

Brian K Jones · April 28th, 2006, 02:46 PM

It was mentioned in another post that a Sony Media rep at NAB had said Vegas 7 is due out this fall. One of the big additions is XDCAM HD support, and suport for their new Cinescore software. I'm sure there will many other enhancements...

April 27th, 2006, 05:15 PM	#1337
Kevin Crockett Regular Crew Join Date: May 2004 Location: FL. Posts: 71	Vegas 5 Capture Question I just finishing capturing 3 tapes from a recent shoot and I'm encountering something I haven't seen before. I have scene detection enabled but vegas is only "seeing" 3 separate scenes on each tape ( after capturing I have three very long scenes that cover different aspects of the production). I know the camera was paused more than three times. I can work around it by capturing manually but I really want to avoid that. The video was shot on an XL-2 at 60i. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

April 28th, 2006, 02:18 AM	#1339
Jim Hawley New Boot Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 23	Render keeps freezing in different spots Yes, I do have quite a few stills in the project, but it seems to freeze on different ones each time. I read in one post there could be an overheating problem with the hardware...is that right? I am rendering on a Dell Latitude D800, 512 memory, 40gb and 300 gb hard drives. I have set all the Vegas temp dirs to the larger drives (not C:). I have tried prerendering portions where the freeze occurs and then rendering the whole project, but no luck. I am using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum +DVD 6a. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks again, Jim

April 28th, 2006, 06:33 AM	#1340
Derek Grimes Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: nashville, TN Posts: 107	Vegas playback issue I am doing a multicamera project. I used 2 xl1 shots and on playback in vegas, they only playback @ around 18 fps. All the others (4 other cameras) are playing back at normal speed. I am just curious why only the xl1 footage is doing this. It renders fine. Just in vegas is where the problem is. All the specs are the same in the video properties. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks PS...these rates are when the tracks are on solo, obviously __________________ tayproductions

April 28th, 2006, 06:36 AM	#1341
Chuck Volm New Boot Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Brunswick, GA Posts: 12	DVD Architect -- Play All? I've been wondering how to set a "Play All" mode along with my menu based format in DVDA. Currently I used two menus with a short 20 sec. clip as a background, one menu for the pre-reception and one for reception, etc. I have them navigate to the item to view, and so on. Is there a way to do it?

April 28th, 2006, 07:57 AM	#1344
John Rofrano Sponsor: VASST Join Date: May 2005 Location: New York Posts: 516	Just to expand on what Don said, if you have two pieces of media (Media-1 and Media-2) and you want to add a Play All button, just copy and paste the Media-1 button and rename it Play All. Then change the End-Action to point to Media-2. You will now have three buttons, one labeled Play All that starts with Media-1 and chains to Media-2 and then one each for Media-1 & Media-2. ~jr __________________ Developer: VASST Ultimate S, Scattershot 3D, Mayhem, FASST Apps, and other VASST Software plug-ins Web Site: www.johnrofrano.com

April 27th, 2006, 10:51 AM	#1336
Dan Euritt Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Carlsbad CA Posts: 1,132	good advice in this thread. beyond that, and kinda o.t. for the thread topic... jeff, when you format a big hard drive to be used strictly for huge files like video, it's best to format it with the biggest block size available.

April 27th, 2006, 05:33 PM	#1338
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	The usual problem in circumstances like this is that your camcorder's clock wasn't set. Mike

April 28th, 2006, 07:32 AM	#1342
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	If you are using DVDA 3 you can set an END ACTION from the 1st clip to the 2nd-open the first clip set end action to point to the 2nd clip and you're all set. Don

April 28th, 2006, 07:35 AM	#1343
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	If you are seeing this in the preview mode its possible that the footage has some type of effect applied or the opacity is lowered (easy to do accidentally) and in the preview mode Vegas will drop the frame rate to keep up with the effects. Check to make sure you have no effects or that the opacity is lowered but it should render out OK and play at full speed anyway. Don

April 28th, 2006, 08:51 AM	#1345
Jim Hawley New Boot Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 23	Call off the hounds, I fixed it...woo hoo! Okay, I have learned my lesson about stills and DPI. I read many postings about not needing to use a high DPI with stills but did not think it would hurt anything if I did. As soon as I converted all images from 600 to 150 dpi, not only was I able to render (finally), but I could actually preview without intermittent stopages. And I don't notice and degredation in image quality, even with a lot of zooming. Whew...now maybe I can get some sleep...zzzzzz.

April 28th, 2006, 12:21 PM	#1346
Peter Jefferson Inner Circle Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Aus Posts: 3,884	Another option apart from teh "end actions" as mentioned here, is to create a playlist. Playlists are brilliant for bits and piece lije this however, you shoudl note that each titl set you insert (ie every individual piece of media) CANNOT extend its chapter listing past itself.. as an example, youve got 4 differnt MPGS. Prep, Ceremony, Photoshoot and reception. Now when u import these into DVDA, u CAN creat scene selection scenes for EACH MPG, BUT, the only way to create ONE Scene selection for ALL MPGS you need to do it manually, which if anyone has used Encore, will know its a fiddly bitch to deal with. What ive been doing if my projects require, i set them out this way (rare) is inport all material and create a play all button using a playlist, then for each clip, i name it "play preparations, Play ceremony, play photoshoot etc etc" people then think that this are the chapters. Then i put marker in every 10 moinutes or so and i write down the "title listing" on the back cover.. its not the best way to do the whole kit and kaboodle, but i create DVDs in less than half an hour using this method. If i did it the other wya, then id be there all day...

April 28th, 2006, 01:22 PM	#1347
Derek Grimes Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: nashville, TN Posts: 107	Multicam question Is there one multicam program that is better than another? I currently have excalibur and its okay but it seems to be tempermental. I really do not like the way the tracks have to be named. Just curious if they are about the same or there are advantages to them Thanks __________________ tayproductions

April 28th, 2006, 01:43 PM	#1348
Jim Hawley New Boot Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 23	Keyboard shortcuts for Audio Envelope Points I just want to be able to move the volume points with more control. The mouse is a pain. At the very least it would be nice to use a key to hold a point's X or Y coordinate while I drag it with the mouse. Ideally I would like to move a point with the keyboard arrows. Any tips? Thanks, Jim

April 28th, 2006, 02:18 PM	#1349
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	There is UltimateS by Vasst however I don't use it. I've been using Excalibur since it came out and frankly I've never really had a problem with it. then naming of the tracks is a simple as 1,2,3...that's really all you have to do. As for it being tempramental sometimes if I've been running my edit station for too long without restarting it (talking about days not hours) Excalibur can be a bit slow to open but then so is Photoshop so I just shutdown and reboot-no big deal for me. Perhaps you could explain in a bit more detail why you feel Excalibur is tempramental and maybe it's a simple fix. Don

April 28th, 2006, 02:46 PM	#1350
Brian K Jones Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 68	It was mentioned in another post that a Sony Media rep at NAB had said Vegas 7 is due out this fall. One of the big additions is XDCAM HD support, and suport for their new Cinescore software. I'm sure there will many other enhancements...