You should be able to click on the file properties in Vegas and manually change the Aspect Ratio. But why are you capturing in Movie Maker?

Dave T2

@ musicvid: So you're saying the problem is because I'm capturing with Windows Movie Maker? I only use it to transfer the tapes onto my computer. The files are saved as WMV so they open in Vegas.

@Dave T2: How so? I've used different templates in the file properties, I've set the simulate device aspect ratio feature and I don't want to crop anything. I just use Windows Movie Maker to capture because it was easier for me at first and now I've just become accustomed to it. I should try capturing with Vegas again. Last time I did, the quality wasn't as good. It sounds weird I know. A crappy little pre-installed program compared to a professional editing program. I'll have to try it again to describe the exact flaws, but I recall it being a little more pixelated and having some missing frames. Maybe I did something wrong.

"Windows Movie Maker to capture because it was easier for me at first and now I've just become accustomed to it."

You've become accustomed to doing it wrong. Windows Movie Maker isn't actually doing a bit-for-bit identical transfer of the video from the tapes to the hard drive, it's transcoding the video and audio and that causes an undeniable and unavoidable loss of quality. WMM captures as a highly compressed Windows Media file and the file format doesn't handle aspect ratios correctly.

In order to get the maximum quality and the correct aspect ratio, you really must be using the Vegas capture utility to capture via Firewire from your camcorder. When you shoot, the video gets compressed in the camcorder and recorded to tape in the DV format. When you capture the tape using the Vegas utility, you are just copying the data directly from the tape to the hard drive with no loss whatsoever. It's bit-for-bit identical to what's on the tape. Vegas also reads the widescreen flag from the camcorder and correctly embeds the widescreen flag in the header of the resulting .AVI on the hard drive.

"Last time I did, the quality wasn't as good. It sounds weird I know."

It sounds weird because it's unlikely to be true. If done correctly, video captured via Vegas will be vastly better than using WMM.

Okay thanks. Any tips on the optimal way to do it?

I think you need to right click the media and change the pixel aspect ratio. This should work pretty much regardless of how it was captured. All that's gone wrong is the 16:9 flag is missing or Vegas cannot read it.

Bob.

There is no "optimal" way to do it. Just read the manual on Vegas Capture. It isn't rocket science.

It's dead easy in Vegas VidCap. AND you can do it directly from within VEgas and after you have the clips already in Project Media - Done!

Bob? What's the point? You then have to change each and every Media setting! No, recapture thru Vegas - DONE!

Eh? Actually, does the PD150 do native 16x9? Or is it videoed with guides and THEN you have to crop/cut it to 16x9 - dunno?

Anyways, I video in Canon 16x9 mode, and VidCap straight into Vegas. Now editing a piece I did in 16x9 now. All the clips came in thru' Vegas VidCap and all have the 1.4568 (PAL DV Widescreen) PAR already set.

Grazie

" No, recapture thru Vegas - DONE!"

If you're lucky.
16:9 flags oftenly got 'lost' even capturing with Vegas.

"Actually, does the PD150 do native 16x9? Or is it videoed with guides and THEN you have to crop/cut it to 16x9 - dunno?"

I don't think the PD150 does native 16:9, well the PAL one doesn't. I have heard that the NTSC version does but I've never had one to confirm. We have a 16:9 anamorphic lens for the PD150 and that's the right way to get 16:9 out of the PD150 at least in PAL land.

PS, you can change all the media to 16:9 in a few clicks.

Bob.

Never lost flags capturing in Vegas, but I use Scenalyzer 90% of the time.

No need to beat a dead horse, but WMV captured in Movie Maker is not a good starting point.

@ farss: thanks that definitely helps. It works for my needs, but I'm told that it's better to capture with Vegas.

@ musicvid: Why is capture through movie maker so bad? I captured through vegas and my aspect ratio problem gets fixed, but one tape took practically 10 gigabytes of space up. Why? Also, the main deterrent in the first place was that in the preview window, even on the "best" setting, the media is really pixelated. That doesn't happen with anything else I do, so I got the impression that the media itself just wasn't captured very well. It should render just as well right? Also, is there a way to not have Vegas separate my media into clips? It's trivial but I prefer to do it myself. What about dropped frames? I had 459 dropped frames, which confused me. It was capturing some blank tape though, so is that the cause?

I can't answer your questions about Movie Maker. It doesn't work for me, and the AVI files are not compliant. That's all I know.

As stated, Vegas Vidcap does not alter your original data. It is a pixel-for-pixel transfer. If there is something wrong in the preview, and you captured directly from the camera with a firewire connection, then the problem lies somewhere else.

You have to have video to capture. Blank tape does not have frames. VidCap will create a new clip every time there is a timecode reset. This is necessary to prevent duplicate timecode on the same event. Since most consumer cameras do not have freerun timecode sync this is unavoidable. Good luck!

<<Also, is there a way to not have Vegas separate my media into clips?>>

There is a setting in preferences that will turn off this option.

<<but one tape took practically 10 gigabytes of space up. Why>>

DV.avi is about 13 GB per hour

I started another thread considering space if you want to check it out. But why does it use so much space and is there a way to reduce the amount of space without greatly reducing the quality? I'm curious how people store all their footage if it takes up so much room.

1) DV-AVI is 25Mbs for the video bitrate. Type this into a Google Search and it will do the math for you:
25 Mb x 3600 to GB
2) Better quality = bigger files. Smaller files = worse quality. There is absolutely no magic involved.
3) People buy additional hard drives to capture and store video. They are cheap.

For more help understanding basic video concepts, you will want to read this tutorial completely. It directly answers every question you have had up to this point:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=12&MessageID=660127