Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q3Q4)

[Edward Troxel]

Depends on WHAT you are looping. If you have a 60 second song you want looped, you need to make it 60 seconds. If you have an 8 second video clip that's looping, natrually make it 8 seconds. If you want to try an make sure there is no "gap" in the music/video (i.e. when the looping actually occurs), you'll need to make it longer so that they select an item BEFORE the looping occurs. Of course you could always "timeout" and have it automatically select something after the song plays if they haven't.

Remember that the loop time applies to EVERYTHING on the menu.

[Marcia Janine Galles]

I'm learning on the fly here, and doing plenty wrong, so I'm sure this is just something I've messed up, but I just noticed that my text is flickering. What I mean by that is, the text-only buttons/list of Chapters, flickers. It doesn't on the computer screen of course, only when burned and played back on the TV, so obviously there's something I need to change/tweak.

Quick project facts:

* Video is Mini DV shot 24p (24pA with the DVX100)
* Video was exported to DVDA as mpeg 2, 24p
* DVDA background for menus consists of a frame grab/still that's been softly blurred in Photoshop Elements, imported into Vegas 5, layered within Vegas with generated media from Vegas as well as text that was created in Photoshop Elements (beveled, etc.)
* This composited background was rendered out of Vegas with the same specs as the main video... mpeg 2, DVDA 24p

Everything looks great, except for the text-only buttons which rest on top of the media mentioned above. I tried rendering the above composite DVDA NTSC (not 24p), but that made both the background and the title created in Elements look like crap.

Is it possible that it's the font itself? I have somebody waiting for this DVD, and I'm out of time... so many tests and only incremental progress. :-(

Any ideas?

Marcia

[Edward Troxel]

There's no "anti-flicker" tools available for the menu similar to the "reduce interlace flicker" option in Vegas. Here's another place where this was discussed: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.co...ssageID=189824

Basic solution: Use a thicker/larger font.

[Michael Best]

Jeez, what am I missing. I got a mixing board with mic's etc. with
the main outs going to my sound card, arm an audio track in Vegas and record, works great. Play it back, sounds great,
once I do another recording, the original one is silent?
Open a 'copy' in Sound Forge - nothing is there, open 'the file'
in Sound Forge and it is there?? But I can't get it back into
Vegas. Record a vocal track, listen to it, next pass it's silent?
What am I missing here??? Pulling hair - help!!

[Andre Andreev]

I've had a similar problem which I am thinking of including in a separate post (I'll need to take photos of my TV screen - thus the future tense).

The setup in DVD architect:
- 24p DVX100a footage, rendered to DVDA 24p mpeg2 format
- Background image (high-quality photoshop - generated .jpg file) containing the text (typographic effects etc. not achievable in DVDA).

The problem:
- when I import 24p footage in the timeline, burn project to DVD and then view the resulting DVD on my DVD Player/TV, the text in the background image gets "damaged" - looks like some of the horizontal lines are missing.
- it seems that DVDA changes (erratically) the DVD intro screen if 24p footage has been imported into the project.


A simulated demonstration of this effect (photos soon)

Image on left is how the intro screen looks if no 24p footage has been included.

Image on right is how it looks if 24p footage *has* been included.

http://www.instantclassic.org/external/demo2.gif

The problem is visible only on the TV screen after the project has been rendered and burned on a DVD and played in the DVD player.

In DVD architect the screen looks OK.


At first I thought this was the result of DVDA resizing the background image to fit the screen so I tried different versions of the image resized in photoshop (640x480, 720x480 and 654x480 if my memory serves me well) and I also tried different "fitting" modes - letterbox, enlarge to fit etc.

My experiments did not change the end result.

Then what I did was remove the 24p footage and burn a DVD with just the multiple title screens on it.

(by different screens I mean having a title screen with let's say 640x480 image set to "resize to fit" modem then a button to another title screen with same image set to "letterbox" mode etc. all in all 9 screens with 3 fitting modes for the 3 image sizes).

On this one all the screens looked OK.

The only difference between good and bad DVD being the 24p footage, it seems that this is an issue with DVDA architect handling progressive scan DVDs.

Any advise will be appreciated - I'll add photos to this post soon, or start a new thread.

note: my DVD player is the Phillips DVP642 and has not shown similar issues with any other DVD.

Regards
-- Andre

[Marcia Janine Galles]

Interesting Andre. I'd like to see the screen shots when their ready. Following Edwards advice I tweaked the font, font size, and added bold to it. It still flickers a bit, but for a screener copy of my movie, it'll do for now. Not something I'd let go for any kind of professional release, but hey, maybe by the time I get to that point Sony will come up with a solution. ;-)

Marcia

[Marcia Janine Galles]

Okay, of all the things I've been up against in the last year, this isn't the most frustrating, still...

...how do I get DVDA to recognize chapters entered in on the remote that start with the same number? 1/11/12/etc. If I hit the number one and then the second number, or both at the same time, it just registers chapter 1 and immediately goes to that one. What's the trick? I can't find anything helpful in the manual or on the Sony website. (sigh) And I was so close...

Marcia

[Barend Jasper]

Ladies, gentlemen,

Has anyone ever made a - commercial - DVD using Macromedia or CSS [Content Scrambling System]? I expect a potential customer will ask me about copy protecting his film in the nearby future, and I'd like to understand the process of getting a film scrambled, as well as the costs involved.

Thanks a million in advance,

Barend Jasper

[Jeff Donald]

This has been discussed before you might want to do a search. It is only cost effective in large quantities in most cases. Get some costs from some DVD replicators in your area and prepare a quote for your client.

[Peter Jefferson]

this type of DVD can only be authored with a program like Encore, Maestro and afew others..

Truely protected DVD can ONLY be burned on DVD Authoring Media, <Very differen to yoru standard DVD-r>
(if u want to have a copywritten/protcted master. These require a different burner to your stocky Pioneer or whatever youre using..

Another alternative is DLT master tapes, send those off and have the duplicating company do the encode, and mark the glass master with CSS data for mass production.

Macrovision is a licensed product, and costs a fortune.
forget it..

These days though, anyone who asked for thisi usually tell them to forget it..

Apps like DVD Shrink allow the removal any copy protection/CSS from the disc and re encode a disc (if u want it to)
in the end if someone wants a copy, they will find a way to get one..

[Edward Troxel]

I would think that would be a function of the DVD player itself. Does the remote have a "+10" button to indicate tracks above 10 (i.e. press it once for 1x, twice for 2x... and then press the second digit so track 23 would be: +10 +10 3)

DVDA can make chapter points. The DVD player lets you select them.

[Allan Phan]

Hi:

Will this keyboard also function as a regular keyboard for every day use or for Vegas use only?

http://www.bella-usa.com/detail.aspx?ID=40

Thanks
AP

[Gary Kleiner]

Yes, essentially it IS a regular keyboard, just with additional colors and printing (and a jog wheel).

Gary

[Marcia Janine Galles]

Amazing... I'd tired jumping around within the menus on only one of my DVD players. Since it didn't work on that one, I assumed I hadn't gotten some setting right within DVDA. But you're right, Edward... it was the player. The other two machines in the house went right to the correct chapter.

Thanks again,
Marcia

P.S. Now if I could just find the magic bullet that makes graphics come up with the exact same placement on all my TV sets (of various sizes), instead of centered on one, and off-center on the next... geesh. What a pain.

[Edward Troxel]

It's the TV!!! :-)