MPG files from NewTek Tricaster playable in Vegas?

dand9959 schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 15:34 Uhr

Using Vegas Pro v9d on an older 32bit XP system. Sure, it's kinda slow but seldom have problems with my (often complex) SD projects.

So now I have a NewTek Tricaster that generates mpg files. When I import them into a V9 project, anything over a couple minutes in length virtually brings Vegas to its knees. Scrubbing is nearly impossible, generating thumbs taks - literally - minutes (if the file is lengthy). Playback preview is almost non-existent, though the audio plays in real time.

I can convert (render) these files to DV AVI and those are then entirely useable with no problems.

I've read in another forum that Vegas v10 will handle these files while "older" versions (v9 and v8) will not. I'm willing to upgrade to V10, but have been reluctant due to my older machine.

Can anybody verify or offer any advice?

Note: the generated mpg files out of Tricaster are main-concept mpeg-2.

Kommentare

rs170a schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 17:03 Uhr

Don't bother with the Vegas upgrade as you won't gain anything.
My department bought a Tricaster (TCXD_300) late last fall and I've experienced the exact same problems on a quad core and Pro 10.
If your Tricaster has SpeedEdit, use that to do the conversion to DV-AVI as it's a LOT quicker than doing it in Vegas.

Mike

dand9959 schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 18:44 Uhr

Thanks, Mike. I feared as much. I don't think our Tricaster has SpeedEdit. Do you know of any conversion utils out there that are as quick (or at least quicker than Vegas)?

rs170a schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 18:56 Uhr

Dan, which model of Tricaster do you have?

Mike

dand9959 schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 19:15 Uhr

Hi Mike...Tricaster Studio...is the embedded NLE on studio a version of SpeedEdit?

rs170a schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 19:21 Uhr

In looking through the Newtek site, that model comes with something called "Edit Media" which I know nothing about.
As I recall, my version is SpeedEdit 2.

As far as another tool to convert, I haven't tried anything since I already have SpeedEdit.
Maybe VirtualDub can handle a Tricaster file?

Mike

johnmeyer schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 19:22 Uhr

Several thoughts.

First, I have found that Vegas has gotten slower since version 7.0d in dealing with SD MPEG-2 files. So, my first suggestion is that you use 7.0d.

Second, I posted a tutorial on YouTube which describes a way to get stunningly fast performance with VOB and MPEG-2 files on the Vegas timeline without transcoding (as you are doing by converting them to AVI). Here is that tutorial:

I have also posted in these forums about using VFAPIConv and DGIndex to put MPEG-2 files on the Vegas timeline and have them play with the same performance as AVI files.

I do this all the time, and it works perfectly. Truly amazing how fast you can scrub the timeline by serving MPEG-2 into Vegas using this technique.

rs170a schrieb am 31.05.2011 um 23:11 Uhr

John, I really wish I could send you a 2 hr. clip to play with as you'd see what we mean.
The MPEG-2 streams from the Tricaster are high bitrate ones (50 mbps at 4:2:0 for SD recording and 100 mbps at 4:2:2 for HD) and they REALLY bog Vegas down.
I've loaded in an entire 2 hr. DVD before and never had the kinds of problems I do with these files.
I was trying to extract some clips with a teacher last week and gave up on it as Vegas was taking at least 5 minutes to respond after I pressed Play :(
That's why the conversion to AVI makes a lot of sense to us.
BTW, this is a common complaint of Vegas users on the Newtek Tricaster forum.
Short clips (5-10 minutes) are no problem.
Long ones are a killer!!

Mike

dand9959 schrieb am 01.06.2011 um 01:24 Uhr

Thanks Johnny....seems to be working per your video. But....any idea why a 50min mpg file would take 2h 15m to convert using dgindex?

dand9959 schrieb am 01.06.2011 um 01:37 Uhr

Totally, agree, Mike. The clips more than a few minutes in length are absolutely unusable in Vegas. The best alternative is to drop on the timeline, render to avi, and use that. You get giant files, but at least Vegas handles them.

Hopefully Johnny's method works okay.

dand9959 schrieb am 01.06.2011 um 01:39 Uhr

Bzzzz! Vdub won't load a Tricaster mpg file. (Error message says: "Error <etc>...May be an mpeg-2 file". Ummm...this I know.)

Ehemaliger User schrieb am 01.06.2011 um 01:44 Uhr

I can't help much here, but I did read that the MPEG files from Tricaster are i-frame only.

That would make it quite intense to decode on the fly.

Dave T2

rs170a schrieb am 01.06.2011 um 10:05 Uhr

Dave T2, you're correct about I-frame only.
SpeedEdit on the Tricaster is optimized for it though as it goes through the files file a hot knife through butter.
I've been spoiled by Vegas as SpeedEdit's editing features leave a lot to be desired :(

Mike

johnmeyer schrieb am 01.06.2011 um 17:22 Uhr

I Googled Tricaster along with variations on MPEG-2:

Google Results

and found that most of the posts have to do with problems editing this video in various applications.

If you can post a short clip (30 seconds or less), I'll take a look and see if I can come up with some additional solutions. I recognized from earlier posts that some problems only happen when you have a huge (multi-hour) file on the timeline, but I expect I'll still be able to offer some help based on tests with a short file.