Color bars not the same color in Vegas 5

Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 10:21 AM
I am comparing the generated color bars between Vegas 4 and Vegas 5 and the bars in Vegas 4 are brighter. The scopes are identical but the image is brighter both in the preview window and on a broadcast production monitor. Is this normal ? Should I readjust my monitor for Vegas 5 or is this a problem with Vegas 5 ?
When I preview the bars from Vegas 5 to my monitor, all the blacks are identical....

Comments

addavis wrote on 4/29/2004, 10:51 AM
Are you referring to NTSC SMPTE bars? I don't have Vegas 5 to compare, but I found the color bars in Vegas 4 to be slightly non-standard. I never received an explanation as to why - perhaps the new version now has more "standard" SMPTE bars. The main difference I noted was that the dark gray bar in the Pluge pattern is 7.5% brighter than standard, which, if used, could result in the external monitor being adjusted darker by 7.5%.
jeremyk wrote on 4/29/2004, 11:37 AM
I have both versions of Vegas, and the bars are indeed different. The third narrow pluge bar that's supposed to be 11.5 IRE does look like it's too bright in V4.

The waveform monitor cursor unfortunately displays percent rather than IRE, so I can't tell what the IRE values are, but the bar measures 11% in V4 and 4% in V5. They look different on my broadcast monitor AND on the Vegas preview screen on my computer monitor.

Arrgh! Time to adjust my broadcast monitor!
Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 11:53 AM
Do you think that this is a problem related to Vegas 4 or 5 ? Is the output of Vegas 5 too dark or is Vegas 4 to bright ?

I am editing TV shows so this issue is quite critical when the color correction process will begin....

Thanks
chaboud wrote on 4/29/2004, 12:04 PM
This was a problem in Vegas 4 and versions leading up to it. The problem was pointed out to us and corrected for Vegas 5.

Let it never be said that Vegas users don't have good eyes.
Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 1:30 PM
Great !

Just to be curious, was the problem related to the whole output or was it a problem related to the generated media only ?
Should I color correct my V4 projects in V5 ?

Thanks.
chaboud wrote on 4/29/2004, 2:47 PM
It was purely a problem in the generated media. It was a long-standing typo in the code.

Your projects should all be fine without color correction, and your monitor calibration from Vegas 5.0 colorbar output should be correct.
Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 3:59 PM
Thanks a lot chaboud ! Just in time :)

I was also wondering if it was possible to control the global opacity of a parent track that contains child track : let's say I have 4 solid colors filling 1/4 of the screen that are childs of a parent track that contains nothing, is it possible to globally affect the opacity of the 4 tracks at the same time ? It seems logical to me with the new system but it does not appear to work... (playing with opacity on the parent track won't do anything...)

Thanks,

Nat
Cheesehole wrote on 4/29/2004, 4:02 PM
I'm not sure if what you are asking is possible, but one alternative is to select all 4 of your child tracks (use CTRL or SHIFT while clicking on track headers) - and then you can adjust them all at once by dragging one of the opacity sliders. But you probably knew that... I too am wondering if there is a trick to use the parent's level controller...
jeremyk wrote on 4/29/2004, 4:39 PM
Try this:

Put white generated media in the parent track, and change the Compositing Mode of the parent track to Multiply.
Cheesehole wrote on 4/29/2004, 4:50 PM
>Try this:

Bingo. jeremyk's got it.
Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 4:51 PM
Cheesehole : the problem with this technique is that if some media are overlapping, they will each fade individually and it will look weird...

Jeremyk : this seems to work very well ! It could be a nice feature to have it built-in though... For now I'm glad it's possible using this trick, thanks !
jeremyk wrote on 4/29/2004, 4:59 PM
My understanding of the family relationships of tracks is still pretty uninformed, but I don't really think this is a trick -- it's more of a TECHNIQUE!

I think that's Just the Way Parent Tracks Work...
Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 5:07 PM
Nice technique then :)
Cheesehole wrote on 4/29/2004, 5:07 PM
The way the parent track works allows for a lot more creativity / flexibility. For example, drop a gradient with "Elliptical White to Black" preset onto the parent track instead of a solid white - or maybe a white on black text event.

It requires a little higher learning curve, but I'm glad I went down that path because now I have a clearer understanding of compositing relationships - and a few new ideas to boot. :)
Nat wrote on 4/29/2004, 5:10 PM
Now, is there a way to make a transition between a group of child tracks on some other media. If you're able to to this then you're the king of compositing :)
Cheesehole wrote on 4/29/2004, 5:17 PM
I don't know... it isn't that hard to put the next media on a track above your comp family and set up the transition manually (as opposed to the auto-overlap method).

You would use the same technique as the previous example to fade out the entire hierarchy at once - while at the same time fading in the next media event which is sitting on a track above.

If you want something other than a crossfade.. well I'm thinking "render to new track"! ;P

EDIT: on second thought, I just tried most of the transitions by dragging them onto the Fade Out of the compositing family and the Fade In of the next media event, and they seem to work fine. So I guess there is no need to do an intermediary render after all.