Noob needs help...

Digital Dan wrote on 9/29/2005, 5:19 PM
Hello folks. I'm fairly new to the DV scene. I'v have limited experience with video editing using Premiere. I decided to upgrade from my trusty old Sony Hi8 to the new HDV-HC1(stunning quality BTW). Just getting used to the camera and DV technology. I also purchased Vegas. Now I have a few basic questions I hope you fine folks can answer.

1) I noticed during capture that Vegas is making seperate 'clips' during a continuous video. Are 'clips' a DV concept or a Vegas concept? What dictates when a clip is made and if it's a Vegas concept (my assumption) can it be disabled? See #4.

2) Is 10k RPM drive recommended for the fewest dropped frames during capture or is 7200RPM ok?

3) During capture I noticed sometimes that capture preview in Vegas will pause but the camcorder pauses as well. Is this pause just because of dropped frames and if so why does the camera appear to pause as well?

4) At the end of each 'clips' I appear to have 2 black frames. This causes discontinuity with the next clip from the same continuous video. Is 'clipping' caused by frame drops? BTW: This does not seem to corespond to GOP errors caused by tape imperfections although I have noticed a few and am going to upgrade the quality of the tape I use.

5) During render I noticed a network render option. Does this requier additional Vegas licenses or is there a small client that is installed on another machine? Seeing as PCs are very cheap these days I see no reason not have to have 3 or 4 machines helping during the render process.

6) Any other noob tips that might be helpful or a link to a solid technical FAQ?

Overall I'm enjoying the camera and Vegas (although I remember Premiere being a little quicker to pickup). Vegas certainly handles MPEG editing much better than Premiere did. Any help would be much appreciated.

Comments

PossibilityX wrote on 9/29/2005, 6:02 PM
Hi, Dan:

I am a relative noob myself, but we'll see if I can stumble through your questions.

1) That's a DV concept, not just Vegas. What dictates separate clips is when differences in the time code are detected----the software knows that there's a jump in time and knows that means a new clip. (If you don't set the clock on your camera, you can disable this feature, though frankly, I don't know why you'd want to---having the clips separated is a BIG help.)

2) I do fine with a 7200RPM drive with 8 meg cache.

3) Not sure about this one. I suspect it has to do with dropped frames, yes, but I rarely get 'em so I dunno. WHen I have gotten them, it's been the fault of my camera, which needed servicing. That probably isn't the ONLY reason dropped frames can occur, however.

4) Not sure about why this happens...

5) I don't think this requires other licenses; but I don't even know what network rendering is, to tell the truth. I just edit my stuff, create a loop region encompasing the entire sequence I want to render, and begin the process. I find it usually takes me 4 - 5 times the length of a given sequence to render that sequence in MPEG 2 for DVD. Sometimes more. Rarely less. I go to dinner or do some writing, or something. The machine does all the work while I do something else.

6) There are a number of tutorials available at various places on the Web, as well as good books and instructional DVDs produced by a few different people. I highly recommend an exploration of these teaching materials. Email me separately if you want and I'll tell you what books / materials I've benefitted from.

Good luck and welcome to Vegas!

---John
busterkeaton wrote on 9/29/2005, 6:13 PM
You can also tell Vegas capture not to split up the different clips by going to Sony Video Capture>Preferences>Capture>

and uncheck Enable DV scene detection.

If you have blank space at the end of your clips, you may have gotten these during taping. If you stop the camera and then view your footage, if you stop on a blank screen, there is blank space (and a break in timecode) between your clips.

Each license of Vegas comes with 2 network render licenses and you can purchase more if you need to. I believe you need a very fast network for this to be efficient. Search this board for network render and you will find tons of info.


Here is good list of Vegas resources, all Vegas Noobs should check out. I suspect you are looking for a general intro to Digital Video though and there are a couple of books out there you can check out.
Digital Dan wrote on 9/29/2005, 6:19 PM
Thanks to you both for your replies. I will have to dig into the clip issue a little further. I shot a 20 minute continuous video an Vegas captured it as 12 different clips. Does this seem like a high number? It seems high to me. When I do a playback of the video I don't notice and recording errors on the tape itself. I guess I have some work to do in this area.

I found a white paper on Network Rendering. I already have a GigE network and 3TB available on a file server. I guess I'll buy two more PCs this weekend to try this out.