Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q3Q4)

[Ed Fiebke]

<<<-- Originally posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle : REgarding the external monitor problem, this is a problem with how the resource switches, and it definitely is a problem.
Here's a silly, but simple workaround for the time being;
Click external monitor in DVDA.
Then go to prefs in DVDA and set the External format to widescreen
It will come up on your external as a squished image
Now reset it to normal NTSC, and it will keep the preview on the external monitor.

You shouldn't have to reconfigure audio. Seems like something is weird with the MOTU, maybe it's internal mixer is set to 44.1? Dunno. I used to endorse their gear, but they really don't support PC stuff very well.
I'd shut down word clock, let the clock come from the internal clock. See if it sniffs the 48K properly.
Is it resampling, or is Vegas/DVDA resampling for you? -->>>

Thank you for the kind reply!

I also posted this in Sony's DVDA forum. Someone, too, suggested this very work around for the External Monitor. This work around. . . well. . . works! :)

Regarding the audio issue. I know that MOTU stuff is wacky-wierd with the PC world. When I first started out in the computer-based audio recording/editing, I had LOTS of problems getting everything to work together. It was a mini nightmare. Thanks to a lot of knowledgeable people from various forums, I did manage to configure the MOTU devices and my computer so that all worked well. . . most of the time.

At present, I have NO issues with my newer MOTU gear, except with DVDA2a. I wish I can tell if it's DVDA or the MOTU software/hardware doing the resampling. Is there a way to investigate this??? All I know is that in order to correctly hear the avi file with the audio set at 48,000 hz/16 bit, I need to set the 828 (and because I word clock the 828 with the MTPAV), the MTPAV to 41,000 hz. I am embarrassed to say that I did not try to set the 828 to "Internal" rather than word clock. It's like trying to change an old habit. I don't even think about changing this particular setting. (I'm so embarrassed.) Will try and report my success or failure.

Other than this particular problem, I'm happy with my current set up! The MOTU stuff is working well for me on all SONY software as well as Steinberg's SX and Logic's LAWP 5. It's just the DVDA2a that's acting funny. . .

Warm regards to you, Spot, and to all on this forum. (Thank you, Ed, for being moderator!!) I lurk here often and learn lots! :)

Ted

[Peter Jefferson]

thats the beauty f it my friend!

Problem is people here in oz are a lil brainwashed when it comes to NLE's...

Sure Prem Pro 1.5 and a Matrox RTx100 are a good tool, but when you consider adobe have changed Premier to work along the same lines as Vegas (not A/B editing) its an expensive substitute..
Vegas is less than half that price..

One thing is for sure, Sony will never bring out a Hardware card like the matrox which offers realtime.. its sad, but thats jsut not SOnys way..

I mean that SDI card theyre bringing out is all good, but its stilll doesnt let me run multiple tracks and filters and output in realtime..

and thats the ONLY problem i have with Vegas.. apart from that, it absolutely kicks ass..


As for Studio, there is no other application out there that offers this level of audio and video as well as DVD authoring.. hell i paid $400 alone for DVDA.. and now theyre almost giving it away..

[Adi Head]

this happened to me too. it WAS infact a keyframe issue. check if you have any small triangles somewhere along the bottom of the effect timeline.

[Michael Morlan]

Hi all,

This is a followup to the thread titled "Vegas 5.0 Delinterlacing methods" as originally posted by James Lilly.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=29954

I posted a short article on my website about de-interlacing with Vegas. I included full-rez sample stills from a narrative short film that originated in 60i on my JVC GY-DV500 and then de-interlaced to 30p.

http://michael-morlan.net/pages/lear...nterlacing.htm

Enjoy,

[Michael Morlan]

Peter Koller's method will work just fine as long as the material isn't interlaced and played on a standard television set. Then, the interlaced lines will be munged vertically and your temporal sequence will be fubared. :-)

As it happens, I had just tried the resize and render method that Peter describes with a progressive project this afternoon. While the result is obviously softer since their is less information, it still works.

My one concern is I observed some stairstep tearing in high-contrast, diagonal edges due to the resize.

[Jim Quinlan]

If it's not the keyframe problem, then here's the probable solution.

if you click splitscreen then the little triangle next to it and click select all, your fx's won't show. Playing with splitscreen you may have selected that by accident. I only know because I did the same thing with Vegas 5 recently and couldn't figure out why my effects weren't displaying.

[Andy Shrimpton]

I'm in PAL land, so you might have to adapt this a bit if you're in NTSC, but here's what I do, following some tips on these forums.

Select a small part of video you want to capture the still from.

Render it, using avi render.

rerender but select upper field first, instead of the lower field first default.

align both rendered avis on a new timeline, and reduce the opacity of the upper track to 50%.

Rerender using progressive scan, and then in a new time line, take your stills from there.

I'm typing this from memory, as I'm not in front of my Vegas PC.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[Gerald Lee]

I'm using NTFS, and the clips are often over 4 gigs, but some of the clips are only a few minutes long. There is no maximum file size specified (the box is unchecked). It's not consistent either because the tape splits into many different file sizes. Also I don't touch the computer while it's capturing. And if it matters, this computer is spyware free.

[Gerald Lee]

Wait, could dirty heads and drop outs cause these splits in video? I thought that was the case, but the tapes split in different places. Although some tapes didn't do this.

[Edward Troxel]

Yes, dirty heads and dropouts COULD cause this. So could breaks in the timecode. For example, suppose you took a tape out of the camera and when you put it back in it didn't start in the previous recording but, instead, started over at zero.

[Ed Fiebke]

I went into the 828 MK2 Audio Console and changed the setting from "Word Clock" (with MOTU's MTPAV as the source) to "Internal", then set the 828 MK2 to 48,000 hz. Finally, went to a recent project used in the DVDA2a and played back the avi file (with the audio set to 48,000 hz).

For whatever reason, the setting within the 828 MK2 Audio Console was switched to 44,100 hz. My guess was this was done by the DVDA2a program. It's like the DVDA2a program wants ONLY the audio device to be set at 44,100 hz.

I'm stumped.

Seems like a glitch to me. . . at least between DVDA2a and the MOTU audio device. Understand that no other programs does this when playing an audio or avi file set at 48,000 hz. Also understand that this issue is just a minor inconvenience to me. I am otherwise happy with the end results provided by DVDA2a: a functional DVD.

Just wondering why this is happening. . . . (?????)

Ted

[Peter Koller]

The stairsteps could maybe eliminated or at least minimized if the resizing would be done with a software that smoothens the steps after a resize. Depends on the calculation method of the application. I think irfanview has a very good algorhythm and Photoshop should be fine, too. I would try and export the images as a tif oder tga sequence and batch resize them.

I have no idea how the various video editing packages handle resizing..

Although this procedure is quite some heavy messing around with the image, it might still be better to do this yourself than letting the viewer hit the zoom button on his tv set, as this might degrade the image a lot more. Oops, interesting English I am fabricating here...

Michael.. "softer" does not imply more filmic, does it? ;-))

Cheers, Peter

[Randall Campbell]

I have done this in the past by using a Widescreen preset for the project settings and then using pan/crop to Match Output Aspect on all of my 4:3 material.

Then for DVD, I simply rendered to MPEG using a Widescreen preset and created the DVD in DVD Architect.

For the web, I rendered to windows media and set a custom output size for widescreen. You can quickly determine the custom output size that you need for widescreen by looking at the bottom of the preview window. If you have Simulate Device Aspect Ratio selected and the project is set to a widescreen project, then the "Display:" info at the bottom of the preview screen will show the square pixel equilivant for the widescreen preview. Simply use these values as the custom output size for the windows media encoder and select "Stretch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox)" in the render dialog.

This worked well for me.

Randall

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I can't tell you why you are experiencing what you're experiencing. I can say that on my editing computer, I have the audio locked to 48K so that I won't hear any audio that isn't 48K, acting as an alert to errors I've made in the editing stage. DVDA doesn't attempt to shift anything on my Delta nor my Layla. I just have to suspect the motu no matter what, unless you are rendering 44.1k files for your video, and that would take a will and effort.
Remove the MidiTimePiece from the process for purposes of experimentation. Just use the 828 as a separate box. See what happens.

[Ed Fiebke]

The avi files are rendered so that the audio is 48,000 hz/16 bit.

But I will do as you suggest, Spot. (I have to work tonight, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow when I'm fully awake and everything is on and running.)

Given the problems I've experienced before in the past with MOTU products, I guess I should suspect one or the other MOTU devices I use in my set up. What confuses me is that they both (the 828 MK2 and the MTPAV) seem to work well with the other programs. . . so far.

Thanks! :)

Ted