It took me three months to screw up the courage to get my FX1. As I suspected, I am now reduced to a complete neophyte, and have become a babbling idiot. Trying to do anything useful with HDV is complicated beyond belief. I won't bore you with all the problems I'm having, but instead reduce it to one simple question:
How do I best crop HDV when my goal is to output to SD?
I captured the HDV and put the m2t files on the timeline (dealing with intermediate files is far more than I can figure out at this point). I want to be able to pan/crop the video so I can achieve pans in post production. I want to maintain the best possible resolution. The problem is that there are dozens of permutations of project settings and rendering choices, especially when it comes to aspect ratio.
My input video is 1080i HDV from my FX1. My eventual output is SD, to be displayed on a 4:3 screen in 4:3 aspect ratio (i.e., I don't want black bars). I have tried setting the Vegas project properties to HDV 1080-60i, but then when I crop, I get black bars on the side or top because I can't figure out the precise dimensions for the pan crop, or how to actually set them. What settings do I use to ensure that I get exactly the correct aspect ratio? I have also tried setting project resolution to NTSC DV. Is this a better way to go?
Bottom line is that I have no clue what to do. I never have had any problem dealing with audio, photos, and video without any outside help, but this is totally baffling.
If you are familiar with the Peter Principle, I have just reached my level of incompetence.
How do I best crop HDV when my goal is to output to SD?
I captured the HDV and put the m2t files on the timeline (dealing with intermediate files is far more than I can figure out at this point). I want to be able to pan/crop the video so I can achieve pans in post production. I want to maintain the best possible resolution. The problem is that there are dozens of permutations of project settings and rendering choices, especially when it comes to aspect ratio.
My input video is 1080i HDV from my FX1. My eventual output is SD, to be displayed on a 4:3 screen in 4:3 aspect ratio (i.e., I don't want black bars). I have tried setting the Vegas project properties to HDV 1080-60i, but then when I crop, I get black bars on the side or top because I can't figure out the precise dimensions for the pan crop, or how to actually set them. What settings do I use to ensure that I get exactly the correct aspect ratio? I have also tried setting project resolution to NTSC DV. Is this a better way to go?
Bottom line is that I have no clue what to do. I never have had any problem dealing with audio, photos, and video without any outside help, but this is totally baffling.
If you are familiar with the Peter Principle, I have just reached my level of incompetence.