Just starting with Vegas 4.0

imekon wrote on 3/21/2003, 2:58 AM
After trying other packages with my Panasonic DV camera, and not getting good results, I tried the Vegas 4.0 demo and felt I found a winner. I bought the Vegas 4.0 + DVD package over the internet and have been trying out capturing and editing DV and MPG files. Next to my TV I have a PC setup to capture video with a Hauppage card which has grabbed video from my Telewest Digital Cable box.

I've tried MPEG-2 encoding and it's pretty slow (2 hours for 20 minutes?) but the video quality is good. Unfortunately, I kept seeing interlace lines whenever there was movement. Switching on "Reduce Interlace Flicker" appears to cure that - though I have to select all video first before I can apply that.

I'm trying out DivX (www.divx.com) which generates much smaller files in a much quicker time but seems very "muddy" compared to VHS playback on a video recorder.

So I'm fiddling with the various settings... is there a discussion somewhere of all the bewildering settings that can help me tweak things to perfection?

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/21/2003, 9:09 AM
What is it you’re trying to do? Most people who use Vegas are copying DV video via firewire to their PC and then editing and making DVD’s or VCD’s. You started by saying you have a Panasonic DV camera but then began talking about capturing with a Hauppage card from a cable box and encoding to DivX. So it would be helpful to understand what you’re trying to do and what your final desired output will be.

Since you bought Vegas+DVD I will assume you’re trying to make DVD’s from your DV camera or cable box? If so, MPEG2 is the only format that DVD’s support so forget about DivX. You should capture/copy your DV footage via firewire (I don’t know which Hauppage card you have or if it has firewire) and then edit and encode to MPEG2. If you don’t want to edit the footage and your card will capture direct to DVD quality MPEG2 (i.e., 720x480 NTSC) then all the better. I checked Hauppage’s site to look at their specifications but only found marketing fluff. What they call a spec sheet, I call a “glossy brochure”. So I can’t tell what your card is capable of.

BTW, the interlace artifacts you see on your computer screen will not be seen on a TV. Computers are progressing scan and TV’s are interlaced. You should not try to remove the interlacing if your final output will be to TV. (unless you have a progressing scan TV)

Check out www.dvdrhelp.com for more information on codecs and formats.

~jr
imekon wrote on 3/27/2003, 9:37 AM
I'm actually trying to do two things.

Capture via firewire from my Panasonic camcorder to my main PC upstairs (Athlon 2200+). So far I've succesfully capture two tapes (and about 20Gbytes of data!).

Capture via a Hauppage card on a PC downstairs (Duron 1.2GHz) connected to my Digital Set top box (Telewest). Again I've grabbed a few episodes of a TV series and edited them with Vegas.

I'm using DivX because (i) it's faster than MPEG-2 as supplied with Vegas and (ii) it generates much smaller files that will fit on a CDrom, rather than a DVD, especially as I don't have a DVD writer as yet.

In terms of settings, I've descovered the "filter interlace lines" helps remove the unpleasant interlace effects with movement, and increasing the bit rate on DivX from 770kbs to 1.5Mbps helps.

At the moment I'm viewing the end result on a PC screen, so interlace artifacts are noticeable. If I ever do a DVD, I must remember not to do the above filtering - is that correct?

Rendering the results on my Athlon still takes several hours - I guess the interlace filtering and the higher bit rate don't help DivX.

Pete