Vegas Video discussions from 2003

Aaron Koolen · April 10th, 2003, 06:22 PM

Hi all, was wanting to convert some footage taken from TV (standard VHs, crappy res) into a DVD. When I rendered the thing out using the MainConcept codec though, the artifacts that appear were astonishing and unacceptably bad to watch on a TV, especially in high speed footage. I then rendered the thing out as 352x288 and the quality was far superior. Does anyone know if there is a way to get the MPG2 renderer that comes with Vegas to do a better job with TV footage? Someone mentioned to me that deinterlacing first might help but can't see an option in the Main Concept codec rendering options. Would it be best to render to AVI and then go through TMPEGENC?

Cheers
Aaron

Harry Settle · April 10th, 2003, 07:27 PM

If you are starting with crappy, crappy is pretty much all you'll get.

Aaron Koolen · April 10th, 2003, 11:24 PM

By crappy I meant typical VHS resolution from a video player. That I can live with on my TV but I don't expect to get crappier ;) The artifacts were astonishingly noticable. and looked like a madly encoded VCD.

Cheers
Aaron

Harry Settle · April 11th, 2003, 10:54 AM

I've done a lot of analog work over the past 6 or 7 years, with limited success. (mostly because I was unwilling to put out the dollars necessary to get the job done, properly)

I started out using one of the Dazzle products to capture to the computer, worked fairly well, but, output had lots of problems. I finaly switched to using the Canopus ADVC-100 for input, analog to digital, and output, digital back out to analog, with outstanding success. Simple matter of plugging it in to the computer with a firewire, and plugging the vhs or camera in to the ADVC. Edit, or whatever, and output back to vhs, if I choose. I get at least the same quality going out, as I got coming in. NO ARTIFACTS.

Also, you need to look carefully at your system. . . fast computer, more ram, fast hard drives and if possible keep your video on the drive separate from you operating system. Defrag etc. . .

One more thing about Canopus products. Go to their forum, you will notice that their users are having fewer problems than users of other systems.

Peter Koller · April 11th, 2003, 11:27 AM

Just downloaded the demo of Vegas 4 to try it out but.. beginners trouble...

I cannot capture from my camera, Vegas just says "please connect a device".

I am using my old Pinnacle DV300 (same as the DV200) could it be that firewire on a video card is not the same as a cheapo firewire?

Maybe someone had the same problem and can help me, I have 16 tapes that should get on my harddisk better sooner than later.

Cheers, Peter

Win2000, 512mb RAM, plenty of HD and all works fine with Premiere.. BUT I WANT TO TRY VEGAS!!!

Garret Ambrosio · April 11th, 2003, 11:54 AM

The best way to troubleshoot this would be to disconnect the firewire cable, reconnect and turn the camera on and VTR mode and see if My Computer sees the DV Complaint Device or DV camera. Then try capturing in Vegas. If it does not work check your Firewire drivers and very that they are NEC or TI complaint drivers. If the camera is not found in my computer or Movie Maker 2, then you have a problem with either the firewire card or the camera. I've read in some forums before that because of the physical pin-out of firewire, it is easy to short out the firewire port in either the device or the card or both. This is usually caused by a slight wiggle or movement causing the wrong pins to touch in the firewire ports. If this is the scenario, then you need to know which went bad or maybe both. I don't know what you have in respect to hardware but this is how I determined that my TRV11's firewire port was burnt out. I took the camera to another firewire PC and a firewire Mac and plugged it in to see if I can get the system to recognize it. No go. I then took another Firewire device (Maxtor 80GB firewire HDD) and check to see if it is working, sure enough it came up right away. Then I knew that the firewire circuitry in the camera was fried.

Peter Koller · April 11th, 2003, 12:15 PM

Well, the capture works fine with Premiere.

I checked the Vegas website and they say to use an NEC, TI or some other default 1394-driver, unfortunately my DV300 does not like these generic 1394-drivers and won´t respond to them...

Hmmm, kinda stuck here... should I get a simple 1394 card for $30?

Edward Troxel · April 11th, 2003, 02:25 PM

Get the simple OHCI card. The DV300 may not be fully compatible. Also, you MICROSOFT's driver - not TI, not NEC, not anyone else.

Garret Ambrosio · April 11th, 2003, 04:03 PM

I say get the $30 card or less I think I've seen them go for 19.99 at Fry's when using Vegas.

Rob Easler · April 11th, 2003, 04:49 PM

Another voice in the choir. Cards like the Pinnacle 300 you have came out before Premiere was OHCI compliant. It was designed to work with premiere and premiere alone. The 300 is not OHCI complient The Pinnacle DV 500 now has drivers that are OHCI compliant. You need and OHCI compliant card for Vegas.

Dan Measel · April 11th, 2003, 08:19 PM

I have VV4 and have created several MPEG2 files for DVD authoring. I want to get Sonic ReelDVD but while reading a review I discovered I have to be able to export the video and audio seperately from Vegas (it said as an m2v and wav file). I've never heard of an m2v file. Does anyone know if Vegas can do this? I checked and it wasn't an option under rendering.

Don Donatello · April 11th, 2003, 11:50 PM

tried it BUT didn't use it ...

now depending on the area you might be able to use a cookie cutter on the area ? find a SHAPE in the cookie selection that fits the area you want to lighten then adjust SIZE so you only see the area you want lighter ..you might add some feathering ...then add CC fx and use gain to lighten area.. or for better control but higher learning curve use the Color Curves FX and only adjust the blacks ( put curser over the lower diamond shape which is up from bottom left corner ... curser will trun into double arrows .right click and drag diamond towards left bottom corner then left and up to your liking ... so now Video track one will have picture area that you want to correct and all other area will be blacked out

now from Vegas explorer add the same clip to Video track 2 ( if you copy video track one to video track 2 you must remove cookie and other fx after you add to track2 ) .. the 2 tracks positions must be exact so make sure the time codes are the same ( zoom into curser - under options /video select show time code or play and adjust till the 2 clips are in sync ..when you found sync then delete the the 2nd audio track) ... now the image from Video track 2 will only show thru the black area of Video 1 ...

Peter Koller · April 12th, 2003, 02:08 AM

I´m gonna bite the apple and buy a card and throw out the dv300.

Thank you guys for all the advice!

Cheers, Peter

Edward Troxel · April 12th, 2003, 06:36 AM

When you go to the DVD rendering settings, UNCHECK the "Include Audio" box. Vegas is definitely able to create an elementary stream MPEG video file.

Dan Measel · April 12th, 2003, 07:51 AM

As always a great help. Thanks a lot.

April 10th, 2003, 06:22 PM	#181
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	Vegas and MPG2 rendering issue. Hi all, was wanting to convert some footage taken from TV (standard VHs, crappy res) into a DVD. When I rendered the thing out using the MainConcept codec though, the artifacts that appear were astonishing and unacceptably bad to watch on a TV, especially in high speed footage. I then rendered the thing out as 352x288 and the quality was far superior. Does anyone know if there is a way to get the MPG2 renderer that comes with Vegas to do a better job with TV footage? Someone mentioned to me that deinterlacing first might help but can't see an option in the Main Concept codec rendering options. Would it be best to render to AVI and then go through TMPEGENC? Cheers Aaron

April 10th, 2003, 07:27 PM	#182
Harry Settle Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bemidji, MN Posts: 276	If you are starting with crappy, crappy is pretty much all you'll get. __________________ "DOH"!!!

April 11th, 2003, 10:54 AM	#184
Harry Settle Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bemidji, MN Posts: 276	I've done a lot of analog work over the past 6 or 7 years, with limited success. (mostly because I was unwilling to put out the dollars necessary to get the job done, properly) I started out using one of the Dazzle products to capture to the computer, worked fairly well, but, output had lots of problems. I finaly switched to using the Canopus ADVC-100 for input, analog to digital, and output, digital back out to analog, with outstanding success. Simple matter of plugging it in to the computer with a firewire, and plugging the vhs or camera in to the ADVC. Edit, or whatever, and output back to vhs, if I choose. I get at least the same quality going out, as I got coming in. NO ARTIFACTS. Also, you need to look carefully at your system. . . fast computer, more ram, fast hard drives and if possible keep your video on the drive separate from you operating system. Defrag etc. . . One more thing about Canopus products. Go to their forum, you will notice that their users are having fewer problems than users of other systems. __________________ "DOH"!!!

April 11th, 2003, 11:27 AM	#185
Peter Koller Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Brunn am Gebirge, Austria Posts: 161	Pinnacle DV 300 and Vegas 4 Just downloaded the demo of Vegas 4 to try it out but.. beginners trouble... I cannot capture from my camera, Vegas just says "please connect a device". I am using my old Pinnacle DV300 (same as the DV200) could it be that firewire on a video card is not the same as a cheapo firewire? Maybe someone had the same problem and can help me, I have 16 tapes that should get on my harddisk better sooner than later. Cheers, Peter Win2000, 512mb RAM, plenty of HD and all works fine with Premiere.. BUT I WANT TO TRY VEGAS!!! __________________ Peter Koller Vienna, Austria http://www.kop11.com

April 11th, 2003, 11:54 AM	#186
Garret Ambrosio Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vallejo, CA Posts: 263	The best way to troubleshoot this would be to disconnect the firewire cable, reconnect and turn the camera on and VTR mode and see if My Computer sees the DV Complaint Device or DV camera. Then try capturing in Vegas. If it does not work check your Firewire drivers and very that they are NEC or TI complaint drivers. If the camera is not found in my computer or Movie Maker 2, then you have a problem with either the firewire card or the camera. I've read in some forums before that because of the physical pin-out of firewire, it is easy to short out the firewire port in either the device or the card or both. This is usually caused by a slight wiggle or movement causing the wrong pins to touch in the firewire ports. If this is the scenario, then you need to know which went bad or maybe both. I don't know what you have in respect to hardware but this is how I determined that my TRV11's firewire port was burnt out. I took the camera to another firewire PC and a firewire Mac and plugged it in to see if I can get the system to recognize it. No go. I then took another Firewire device (Maxtor 80GB firewire HDD) and check to see if it is working, sure enough it came up right away. Then I knew that the firewire circuitry in the camera was fried. __________________ "USA Today has come out with a new survey - apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population." -David Letterman

April 10th, 2003, 11:24 PM	#183
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	By crappy I meant typical VHS resolution from a video player. That I can live with on my TV but I don't expect to get crappier ;) The artifacts were astonishingly noticable. and looked like a madly encoded VCD. Cheers Aaron

April 11th, 2003, 12:15 PM	#187
Peter Koller Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Brunn am Gebirge, Austria Posts: 161	Well, the capture works fine with Premiere. I checked the Vegas website and they say to use an NEC, TI or some other default 1394-driver, unfortunately my DV300 does not like these generic 1394-drivers and won´t respond to them... Hmmm, kinda stuck here... should I get a simple 1394 card for $30? __________________ Peter Koller Vienna, Austria http://www.kop11.com

April 11th, 2003, 02:25 PM	#188
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Get the simple OHCI card. The DV300 may not be fully compatible. Also, you MICROSOFT's driver - not TI, not NEC, not anyone else.

April 11th, 2003, 04:03 PM	#189
Garret Ambrosio Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vallejo, CA Posts: 263	I say get the $30 card or less I think I've seen them go for 19.99 at Fry's when using Vegas. __________________ "USA Today has come out with a new survey - apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population." -David Letterman

April 11th, 2003, 04:49 PM	#190
Rob Easler Major Player Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Naperville, IL Posts: 219	Another voice in the choir. Cards like the Pinnacle 300 you have came out before Premiere was OHCI compliant. It was designed to work with premiere and premiere alone. The 300 is not OHCI complient The Pinnacle DV 500 now has drivers that are OHCI compliant. You need and OHCI compliant card for Vegas.

April 11th, 2003, 08:19 PM	#191
Dan Measel Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 196	Vegas video exporting for ReelDVD I have VV4 and have created several MPEG2 files for DVD authoring. I want to get Sonic ReelDVD but while reading a review I discovered I have to be able to export the video and audio seperately from Vegas (it said as an m2v and wav file). I've never heard of an m2v file. Does anyone know if Vegas can do this? I checked and it wasn't an option under rendering.

April 11th, 2003, 11:50 PM	#192
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	tried it BUT didn't use it ... now depending on the area you might be able to use a cookie cutter on the area ? find a SHAPE in the cookie selection that fits the area you want to lighten then adjust SIZE so you only see the area you want lighter ..you might add some feathering ...then add CC fx and use gain to lighten area.. or for better control but higher learning curve use the Color Curves FX and only adjust the blacks ( put curser over the lower diamond shape which is up from bottom left corner ... curser will trun into double arrows .right click and drag diamond towards left bottom corner then left and up to your liking ... so now Video track one will have picture area that you want to correct and all other area will be blacked out now from Vegas explorer add the same clip to Video track 2 ( if you copy video track one to video track 2 you must remove cookie and other fx after you add to track2 ) .. the 2 tracks positions must be exact so make sure the time codes are the same ( zoom into curser - under options /video select show time code or play and adjust till the 2 clips are in sync ..when you found sync then delete the the 2nd audio track) ... now the image from Video track 2 will only show thru the black area of Video 1 ...

April 12th, 2003, 02:08 AM	#193
Peter Koller Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Brunn am Gebirge, Austria Posts: 161	I´m gonna bite the apple and buy a card and throw out the dv300. Thank you guys for all the advice! Cheers, Peter __________________ Peter Koller Vienna, Austria http://www.kop11.com

April 12th, 2003, 06:36 AM	#194
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	When you go to the DVD rendering settings, UNCHECK the "Include Audio" box. Vegas is definitely able to create an elementary stream MPEG video file.

April 12th, 2003, 07:51 AM	#195
Dan Measel Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 196	As always a great help. Thanks a lot.