Another option for you: Instead of exporting a frame, editing, and bringing that frame back in try:

1. Delete that one video frame (which, as you said, would produce a "black" frame)

2. Take the frame before or after that frame and cut it to a single frame.

3. COPY that one frame into the hole

Basically you've just replaced that one bad frame with either the frame before or after it.

If you've got the kit recapturing the tape from the analogue outputs of the VCR into a A/D converter will oftenly get rid of the dropouts as will doing another capture over firewire, cleaning the heads before isn't a bad idea either. Come to think of it I've never seen a dropout in a D8 tape, the format is way more robust than DV.

Bob.

If it's a vocal audition, don't mess with it. Just leave the artifact in. They care about the vocal performance not the video quality. If it really bugs you, fix it for yourself and archive the fixed version.

Here are two recipes:

1- set preview window to Best/Full
2- locate frame and export as PNG. This will save a PNG and also add the image to your project media list in Vegas
3- open image in Photoshop and edit. Note that the image is 654x480 (or whatever things get exported as in PAL-land). Save when finished.
4- go back to Vegas and add the image to a track above the original. Drag the duration of the clip down to just one frame. Note that the image should fill the frame without changing its PAR property. Quality may be very slightly less than the original underlying frame. Also note that you can go back to Photoshop and do more editing, the image on the timeline will automatically update.

OTHER METHOD

1- set preview window to Best/Full
2- locate frame and copy to clipboard. This will NOT add the image to your project media list in Vegas
3- Create new file in Photoshop (CTRL+N). By default, pshop will offer to creat an image that is the same size as your clipboard contents. Paste clipboard contents into new image and edit. Note that the image is 720x480 (or whatever things get exported as in PAL-land). Save when finished.
4- go back to Vegas and add the image file to your project
5- Add the image to a track above the original. Drag the duration of the clip down to just one frame.
6- Note that the image will NOT fill the frame without changing its PAR property. Right click on the event and reset the media's PAR to whatever your project's PAR is (0.9091 for NTSC) Quality should be exactly the same as the original underlying frame. Also note that you can go back to Photoshop and do more editing, the image on the timeline will automatically update.

Rob Mack

True. They said not to mess with it, so don't. Unless it's freaking the artist out.

Rob Mack

Thanks for all the replies. I am definitely going to try to fix this - one, because I want to learn how, two because I don't feel I'm breaking the spirit of the competition rules by doing so.

The reason for this requirement - one stationary camera, unedited video within selections - is so that they can evaluate the contestant's ability to perform (albeit in a non-performance situation). The competition is for the Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a competition in which my daughter participated and prevailed. In her day (several years back) they only required audio tapes. I am certain their evaluation of contestants was skewed by the relative ease with which a performer can assemble a perfect rendition of their repertoire by using the best sections from several different takes of each selection, thus enhancing the perception of the contestant's qualification far beyond his/her actual ability to deliver in an uninterrupted live performance. For instance, a singer might definitely have that high note that occurs at the end of an aria if he/she only sings the last three lines of the piece. Hitting that same high note after performing the three or four minutes worth of demanding singing that precedes it is another matter altogether.

By correcting these three frames, I am in no way enhancing the contestant's performance - just bringing the final DVD a little closer to what she actually laid down (there were no glitches on her face during the taping, LOL).

I haven't tried recapturing the taped footage because I re-played the sections in question from camera, and the artifacts definitely show up as the tape is played back at the exact locations where they are visible in the file that has been transferred to my PC. I doubt this is a case of dirty heads. I shot about 90 minutes of footage using two 8mm cassettes and have a problem with only these three frames (and they occur early in the session). I would think that dirty heads would have caused a more continuing problem - one that would last throughout the remainder of the footage once it appeared.

It does seem strange to me that these defects appear as artifacts. I've accidentally ruined sections of tape when software glitches caused the cam to go into pause or replay a certain section over and over again (not a Vegas software problem, by the way). In those cases, the image tended to break up along the worn section of tape rather than be laced with artifacts, so, I really don't get what might have happened - but it is definitely there and isolated to three specific locations on the tape.

I do have the equipment to capture via the analog video outputs - that might be worth a try also. OTOH, if I can simply use photoshop to clone these few problems away, that would probably work just as well.

I already have two DVD's prepared, so, delivering with the artifact is as bad as this situation gets - and, as I've said, that would not be fatal.

Again, thanks for the replies.

Del

I Getting a bit away from the topic here but are you using the ME D8 tape?
The MP 8mm tape will work, sort of, but I believe with higher risk of dropouts and more head wear.

I understand your desire to fix the problem, those little glitches get noticably worse once the video is encoded to mpeg-2.

One other trick I've used to hide bad frame(s) is to cut out the offending frame(s) leaving a gap. Then make a cut in the video say 10secs either side of that and ctl-drag the two ends into the gap with a one frame dissolve. By the time the viewer might have noticed the slip in sync it's back in sync and visually there's no jump at all.

Good Luck

Bob.

Bob:
The tape is in Sony's cassette with the red accent - don't have one with me to check, but it is labeled as Digital 8 tape, not Hi8 tape, and will not work properly in any of my analog 8 mm equipment for recording or play back. One think I've always appreciated about the D8 format was its backwards computability with my older analog stuff, and I really never had much of a problem using Hi8 (well, that was the most advanced formulation available when the D8 format arrived), or regular 8mm to shoot D8 footage. These Digital 8 tapes came later and are probably biased in some special way, for what reason, I'm not certain.

I'll be playing around with this stuff this evening. Plan on delivering the DVD's tomorrow. Thanks again for the helpful replies.

Del