How to get better scrub playback in Vegas?

ken c wrote on 4/18/2009, 7:44 AM

Hi -

A longtime issue with Vegas I've had is that, especially for higher-res video clips, the scrubbing/playback preview in the preview window is unacceptably slow (even on draft/low quality).

So I end up having to scrub through a source video clip using windows media player, note the time of what I want to scrub to, then go to that location manually in the Vegas timeline.

Any feedback/tips on how to get faster, better video scrub previews in the Vegas preview window? For example I may have a 10 minute clip and want to go through it and excerpt out a minute or so of specific footage for jump-cuts, it's a real hassle to see how slow Vegas is to correctly display the frame I've scrubbed to on the timeline, much less edit off of it (unless I'm using low res sub 720x480 source clips)...

Ideas/workarounds? Even in garbage-looking 'draft'/preview resolution, the Vegas preview window is unacceptably slow to correctly show the frame I need, much less realtime scrubbing like I require... (does any good nle do a great job of this?).. and this is on a higher-end dualcore with 4gigs ram winxp using Vegas 8a (or b).

thx,

-ken

Comments

blink3times wrote on 4/18/2009, 8:02 AM

I'm not sure what the problem is here (unless you're talking about scrubbing with the audio?). If your preview is jumpy while scrubbing then you're not zoomed in enough.

The preview window will not jump if you have the timeline zoom set fine enough, but DOES jump if you're zoomed out too far.

The trick is to get a proper mouse (or shuttle) that allows quick zoom in/out. If your mouse has a wheel and you have it set up properly then you can zoom in/out just by moving the wheel. Zoom out and find the rough area you want to scrub, place your scrubber in that area, then turn the wheel to zoom in on that area. It's fast and efficient. I can scrub accurately and smoothly right down at the frame level and then quickly zoom out and jump to the other end of the time line, zoom back in and scrub smoothly there too.

baysidebas wrote on 4/18/2009, 9:04 AM

Ed Troxel (jetdv) kindly provided a script to address this exact question:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=587261

ken c wrote on 4/18/2009, 10:44 AM

Thanks - by scrubbing I mean, just simply clicking and dragging over a video clip in the Vegas timeline, so I can see where to put my edit points/splits, by watching where it's at in the preview window, which is too slow. Heck even most of the time the footage doesn't show the right preview on the timeline unless it's zoomed wayy out, which makes it hard to preview a video clip on the timeline for editing. Will do re checking the script, thx..

-ken

Former user wrote on 4/18/2009, 11:45 AM

Ken.

Get you a Contour Shuttle Pro. It makes scrubbing so much easier.

Dave T2

TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/18/2009, 2:30 PM

When clicking & dragging the smallest amount you can move is 1 pixel & 1 pixel can be a variable # of frames.

You can drag the scrub thingy right about the TL (always above the line showing where you are), that always moves @ a constant rate. Or you can use the JKL keys. I normally use the JKL keys.

Former user wrote on 4/18/2009, 6:12 PM

You can also use the ALT + Left or Right arrow for one frame movements.

Dave T2