Device settings for VHS tape

naclhead wrote on 4/1/2002, 11:58 AM

Hi,

I'm new to V Video. Been using Vegas and Acid stuff for a year but not Video until now. Have VV 3.

I talked my boss into aquiring VV3 to do our video editing instead of the old Avio Casablanca video editing box we have. I told him VV3 would do way better on text, have more transistions and be upgradable. And that it is. But as I am editing on my PC the video is jerky. I'm wondering if when I get to my final destination of VHS tape will it be fluid as you would see on TV.

I notice that it only has an option for DV tape. I'm assuming I can also make a VHS tape. Is that a correct assumption? If so what device sttings should I use? And should I use different settings while I'm editing on my PC as when I render to tape? Are there settings I can change while on my PC to make it more fluid or will it always be jerky while on the PC as when you view streaming video over the web?

Hardware is Celeron 700MHz 256 Mg RAM 30gig Western Digital 7200 RPM HDD. The video is S3 Trio3D/2X as part of an all in one mother board.

Thanks
Todd

Comments

tserface wrote on 4/1/2002, 12:06 PM

Hi Todd,

If you are talking about the preview window, you are right it will often look jerky while previewing because it will not be able to do all of the frames unless you have a really high powered computer. If you look at the number of frames underneath the view you will see that the number jumps around. When I do a lot of compositing it often goes down below 10 (normal is 29.97 for NTSC). When you render the video it work OK. If you plan to output to VHS on a regular basis you will probably want to pick up a Canopus, Hollywood, Sony, or PowerR converter box that does digital to analog and vice versa. I have the Director's Cut from PowerR (I think they may have been bought out by someone recently, but the website still works) and I really love it. It costs around $300, but it makes the transfer a lot easier and you don't have to hook up your camera all the time or copy to digital tape and then to VHS. I think you will really like Vegas. It does a really great job and I've never had a problem producing anything I've wanted to do with it.

Tom

murk wrote on 4/1/2002, 11:07 PM

Here are some things to reduce jerkiness in the preview window:

1. Set the quality to 'Draft Quality'
2. Reduce the size of the preview window
3. Or, select the region you wish to preview and press 'Shift + B'. This will dynamically render the selection into RAM. Make sure that you allocate lots of RAM to the preview buffer (I use 300MB), found in Video preferences.

The system you have should work fine for building videos, but here are some tips to help:
1. Don't expect that during the editing process you will see everything in real time
2. Know that Vegas Video 3 has the ability to generate great looking output, though your first several renders may require parameter tweaking to get that polished look.
3. Limit the number of layers and FX being composited at any given time. This can often be acheived by rendering complex portions of a project to a file, then reinsert the rendered file in place of the complex portions