Playback of Video via Firewire

ClaudeJones wrote on 8/10/2004, 8:11 AM
New user question: I would like to use Vegas in live event situations, to play back graphics and video clips. I'm trying to figure out what horsepower laptop I need. In experiments just now, both raw clips and timeline playback suffered serious dropout when played back on a PIII 1GHz laptop with 1/2 gb of ram, played out via a PCMCIA firewire card connected to a firewire hub, connected to a camera. My scenario would be a more powerful laptop with integrated firewire, played out to a firewire to analogue converter, which would then be piped into my switcher via a TBC for timing purposes.

I'm looking at two laptops now, one a 1.6 Centrino with 1/2 GB of ram, and a 3.06 GHz PIV with multi-threading and 1/2 gb ram. I hope I'm not asking something that's been answered over and over -- I did try looking through the archives. The clips I seek to play will be rendered video and static images (charts and graphics). I would like to line them up in the gallery and simply click on them when called for by the presenter. Can anyone offer suggestions on laptop horsepower and any other issues I should be considering in implementing this?

Comments

BrianStanding wrote on 8/10/2004, 10:08 AM
You should be able to get by with lower CPU horsepower IF you pre-render the timeline, or render to a new DV codec AVI file first. You might want to try this on your current machine first and see how it looks.

If this is not an option, you'll have to experiment. Keep in mind that you can trade off resolution vs. frame rate by selecting options from the Video Preview window. (i.e., Preview/Full, Good/Full, etc.).

rs170a wrote on 8/10/2004, 11:24 AM
Claude (from dpsEdits??) :
Welcome to the Vegas community.
I just tried this on a W2K box (P4 2 gig with 128 mb RAM) we have for student use and it works just fine.
I loaded several images and pre-rendered clips into the media pool.
Select "preview on external monitor", select the clip and click "play" from the media pool. Worked like a charm.
We feed an external monitor using a Canopus ADVC-100. This same box should work just fine to feed your tbc/switcher.
Personally I'd go with the more powerful laptop if you can. I'm sure you'll find other uses for it as well :-)

Mike Kujbida
ClaudeJones wrote on 8/10/2004, 12:22 PM
Hello Mike: Thanks for testing that for me. I have decided to go with the more powerful laptop, and just ordered it. I did find some pertinent threads on this issue on another forum, finally, and that convinced me that horsepower was more important than the long battery life.

Presumably, if I wanted to prepare edited clips, there's a way in Vegas to render them as .avi's so all the transitions will be smooth? Regarding the stills, were they stable ( no shimmering?)
rs170a wrote on 8/11/2004, 5:50 AM
...I have decided to go with the more powerful laptop...
Great. Out of curiosity, the Acer Ferrari Tim Duncan uses?

...there's a way in Vegas to render them as .avi's...
Yep. When you selct "Render As", it should default to "Video for Windows (*.avi)" in the "Save as type" box and "NTSC DV" in the "Template" box. That should be it for videos.

Regarding the stills, were they stable ( no shimmering?)
First of all, no matter how good the source image is (I was trying it with 1600x1200 stils from my digital camera), the output is fixed at video size so there will be a quality loss.
If I was playing them from the Media Pool only, it took a few seconds for the image to stop flickering before I'd feel comfortable taking it as a feed.
If this isn't acceptable, put all the stills on the timeline in the desired sequence. Right-click the first still and select "Events to End". Then, right-click on the first still again and select "Switches > Reduce Interlace Flicker". This gets rid of the momentary flicker I was referring to.
You can still switch back and forth from the timeline to the Media Pool if you don't want to put your video clips on the timeline.
Hope I've explained things properly. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.

Mike
jcs wrote on 8/11/2004, 8:01 AM
Have you considered burning to DVD? You could set a menu to repeat over and over... hidden links for alternate video/images that go back to the menu. I have used this and it is more reliable than a software approach.

My 2 cents worth.
ClaudeJones wrote on 8/15/2004, 3:00 PM
Thanks for that suggestion. When I get some better understanding of the program, I will definitely look into that.
ClaudeJones wrote on 8/15/2004, 3:03 PM
I got an HP Pavilion with 3.06 GH multi-threading processor, 1/2 GB ram, 80 GB 5400 RPM hd, and a hi-rez 1900X1220 screen. It's a funny thing about that. I just checked on it, and it's been shipped, and is sitting in a FEDEX shipping office in Shanghai!!! Sort of boggles the mind that they find it cheaper to do business that way....

Thanks for all the rest of the info you provided.