Newbie needs help

JohnnyPhilko wrote on 3/15/2004, 10:19 AM
Hi All,

I have recently installed Vegas 4.0 and connected a Pryo A/V link to the system to be able to monitor the video on a small 13" TV.

My system is tweaked for Sonar and we have recorded and mixed complete commercial CDs on it, so I am assuming that the same system tweaks apply to Vegas as well, and I shouldn't have many problems in this area.

Here are my system specs:
AMD Atholon 1 gig mhz system
ECS (Elite Group Systems) K7S5A Motherboard
with SiS 735 chipset and 4X AGP slot
256 meg of DDR ram
40 gig 7200 rpm UMD hard drive,
120 gig 7200 rpm UMD hard drive
front bus speed of 266mhz
GeForce FX 5200 Graphics card with 256 ram
Win 2000
Sonar 3.1b
Delta 1010 with 2.9 drivers
Vegas 4.0e
ADSTech Pyro A/V Link

I ripped a 4 minute video from a DVD of our music video and loaded it into Vegas, just to test out the external TV setup. I ran into some unusual things that I think may be problems that I need to address. (I'm really new to Vegas and this is as far as I've played with it yet.)

I had the firewire cable plugged into the back of the Pryo AV Link and when I switched to watching the external monitor, I got green screens all over the place. I switch to a four pin cable and plugged the firewire from the computer into the front of the Pyro, and things started working much better.
But I noticed the my cpu usage was at 100% most of the time and it looks like I am losing frames on the TV and the quality isn't as good as I had hoped. I lose audio / video synching also doing this.

Since there has been no editing done to the raw video I'm playing, I wouldn't expect to see 100% cpu usage and some of these problems.
Anyone have any ideas about what may be going on?

Thanks in advance,

Johnny Philko
http://www.JohnnyPhilko.org

Comments

Jimmy_W wrote on 3/15/2004, 11:03 AM
Try an avi. Vegas does not handle dvd vob file with ease.
Which explains no audio which is ac-3 encoded, vegas wont them at all.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/15/2004, 11:35 AM
How did you "rip" the DVD? As Jimmyw suggested, try capturing the DVD with the A/V Link to a DV AVI file and then play that back. This should solve the CPU usage problem.

~jr
BillyBoy wrote on 3/15/2004, 11:36 AM
Sounds like the Pryo A/V hardware. Try connecting with 100% compliant firewire card to digital camera, to external monitor. Works great.

The type of interface card DOES make a difference. I recently build a top of line system with a very high quality MB that had what they claimed was a firewire interface build-in. It worked fine for print to tape but would drop frames like crazy trying to capture. Or was it the other way around? I forget. Anyway, replaced with my trustly and dirt cheap SIIG firecard card (100% IEEE 1394 compliant) and no problems at all.

http://www.siig.com/product.asp?pid=477

If you try to use a card that isn't exactly on specs to the IEEE 1394 standard for firewire, all bets off. Anything can happen to working fine, to not working at all or anything inbetween.
Jimmy_W wrote on 3/15/2004, 2:19 PM
Great suggestion! But try a good ol avi first. BB's right on a 100% IEEE 1394 compliant card makes life easier. let us know how it turns out.

jw
JohnnyPhilko wrote on 3/15/2004, 9:55 PM
Hi all,

I ripped the Dvd from them DVD burner in the computer to an iso file and brought that into Vegas. I will try either converting it to an avi, or ripping from the dvd to an avi (if I have that ability).

I wanted the highest quality possible, so I went with the iso format. Does the avi format involve any compression of the video?

I will post back when I have tried the avi file.

Thanks,
Johnny Philko
http://www.JohnnyPhilko.org
JohnnyPhilko wrote on 3/16/2004, 9:52 AM
YIPPEE!!

You guys are great!!

I figured that I would try to convert the iso file to an avi file and that it would be at least a 3 beer job, so I grabbed a few beers and headed to the studio to try and find some utility that would let me do the conversion.

Within half a beer I found out the Vegas would let me render the file to an avi file! (Doh!!!) I reloaded the avi file and my cpu usage dropped to 40% while previewing on the computer monitor and down to 10% on the external tv!!!!

Something that happened though is that somehow Vegas clipped the last few seconds of the video off, eother during the rendering process, or when importing the clip back into Vegas. I'm not sure what's going on with this. It was getting late and I had finished off all of the beers I brought for the occasion, so I gave up for the night. :-)

So, I guess that's my next hurdle of what's sure to be many many hurdles I have yet to jump! :-)

Thanks,
Peace,
Johnny Philko
http://www.JohnnyPhilko.org
epirb wrote on 3/16/2004, 1:01 PM
Just a thought, but maybe you had the loop region set (above the time line) and it was just shy of the total time. then when you rendered the box was checked marked render loop region only.

<oops, I hope this wasnt suposed to be one of those Muttley replies :) >
RichMacDonald wrote on 3/16/2004, 1:26 PM
>I figured ... that it would be at least a 3 beer job, so I grabbed a few beers and headed to the studio ... It was getting late and I had finished off all of the beers I brought for the occasion, so I gave up for the night :-)

Hmm, not very efficient. I think a fairly obvious studio upgrade is in order. If the distance from the beer supply to the studio is that great, I think its time to move the beer supply.

Speaking of St Paddy's day, you'll find me in the golf cart in the parade tomorrow taking "official" footage :-)
JohnnyPhilko wrote on 3/17/2004, 7:10 AM
I'll check the loop situation, thanks!

Maybe I should just mark my messages Attn: Mutley for a while! :-)

Peace,
Johnny Philko
http://www.JohnnyPhilko.org
JohnnyPhilko wrote on 3/17/2004, 7:11 AM
LOL, that's a great idea for an upgrade, I'll run it by the boss (wife) and see what see thinks! ;-)

Peace,
Johnny Philko
http://www.JohnnyPhilko.org