Printing to tape without rendering using Vegas 4

uncleallan wrote on 4/2/2003, 1:35 AM
Hi all,

I am using Sonic Foundry Video factory 2c at the moment and I would like to print to a DV tape without having to render first as you do in Video Factory. How well does printing to tape without rendering first work in Vegas 4 with a few transitions going on as well? I read the info on Vegas 4 and it states that you can print to tape without rendering. Would be grateful for any advice and info.
Many thanks,
Allan.

Comments

Caruso wrote on 4/2/2003, 4:10 AM
I don't own 'Factory, but would be surprised if you can actually print to tape (including special effects) without first rendering. That would make 'Factory more powerful than Vegas (I have always assumed Vegas to be the more robustly endowed of the two programs). If you really can PTT from 'Factory without rendering, I'd like to know more about it.

What you could do from Vegas is play the timeline to external monitor and copy the output via the S-Video or composite video output connections of your camcorder to your destination deck (VCR or another Camcorder). That would capture the video. For audio, you would have to route that separately via the mini-plug analog output of your sound card to the RCA audio inputs of your destination deck, as external monitor in Vegas carries the video only to the camcorder.

What you'll give up (depending on the real time processing ability of your PC) is the smooth, professional look of fully rendered special effects. Most likely, the video will get very jerky wherever you've used fades, slow-motion, text, etc. - any special effects in addition to the native DV footage you started with. Rendering is the process that integrates all of that stuff into a video file that plays smoothly when printed to tape.

Vegas does allow you to print from the timeline, and you can start this process without rendering first, but, Vegas will, as part of that process, perform rendering for you of all areas that require it before actually proceeding to print to tape.

Other than some nice packaged options that are part of the Vegas Print-to-Tape-from-Timeline dialogue (I discovered the STMPE (are those the right initials, I don't remember and don't have my Vegas machine with me to check) test pattern bars this way - there is an option for them in the PTTFT dialogue), I've yet to figure out what the real advantage is to Print to Tape from Timeline. It won't save you any time or storage space - maybe someone else can comment on this.

I suppose that, if you had an unaltered DV file and wanted to use Vegas to make several copies of it, you could capture the footage, load it to the timeline, and, using the connections I mention above, play the timeline to copy it to tape. On the other hand, if you hadn't altered the DV footage, Vegas would spend little (probably no) time if you did choose to render, and then, you could print to tape conventionally, and get a faithful, fully digital copy of both video and audio.

I hope I haven't been to lengthy in this reply - and I hope my explanation answers your question. Take another look at your process in Video Factory to see if you are really printing from the timeline without rendering - I bet you'll find that you are really rendering afterall.

Caruso -- PS-Does the info you read on Vegas really state that you can print to tape without rendering, or does it merely state that you can print to tape from the timeline? Just curious. C
Tyler.Durden wrote on 4/2/2003, 5:47 AM
Hi,

Vegas will not render any segments that are unaltered DV printing to DV... Any FX, fades, dissolves will render prior to PTT.


A program that is straight-cuts with no FX will only process the audio into a wave-64 file before printing to tape.



HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html



Chienworks wrote on 4/2/2003, 5:54 AM
When printing to tape from the timeline, Vegas only needs to render parts of the video that are modified with transitions, effects, titles, composits, etc. Any sections that are straight unmodified cuts don't have to be rendered. This can be a huge time and space savings over rendering the complete file first.

I've got a 2 hour, 44 minute opera on my 60GB D: drive right now eating up about 36GB of space. I've sync'd an externally recorded audio track (eating another 1.6GB) and now need to output the new version back to tape. The only part that Vegas has to render is the 40 seconds at the beginning where i've added a title and faded in, and the 5 seconds at the end where i've faded out. This is less than 200MB worth of space and only takes a couple of minutes. I don't have room on the drive to render the entire opera to a new version, so print to tape from the timeline is the only thing that makes this project possible on my computer.
Caruso wrote on 4/2/2003, 12:34 PM
Chien:
Question for you (or anyone who cares to comment):

I understand that Vegas would not need to re-render parts of your opera that have not been altered. Here's my question. Regarding the separate audio track that you sync'ed -- can Vegas output that to tape without rendering the entire piece (video and audio) to combine those two separate tracks (your separate audio and separate video). I'm guessing that you muted the audio that was part of your original video to take advantage of a better audio only sound track.

I was under the impression that such an arrangement would cause PTTFTL to render most of the piece - I usually get that message about over x% of the project needs to be rendered - continue anyway??

Anxious to here your reply.

Caruso
jetdv wrote on 4/2/2003, 1:51 PM
If you get the "over 80%" message, then you added or changed something that requires most, if not all, of the project to be re-rendered. On a weekly hour long program I edit, probably less than 5 minutes is actually "rendered". The rest is sent to tape untouched.

The most common cause of the 80% message is a video track level that has been bumped below 100% (even 99.9% will cause EVERY FRAME to be re-rendered). Or an effect has been added to a track or project.
Chienworks wrote on 4/2/2003, 2:04 PM
Caruso, the sound track is rendered to a .w64 file before the printing starts, but since the video isn't affected it's not rerendered. In my previous post i should have said "the only part of the video track that has to be rendered ...". This rendering to .w64 happens even if you print a single straight DV clip, but it's usually very fast since it's only the audio track. Oddly enough, Vegas seems to be able to integrate the .w64 audio into the DV stream on the fly, but isn't able to include the original audio from the video clip without rendering it to a separate file. Strange.
uncleallan wrote on 4/2/2003, 5:58 PM
Hi Caruso and all,
Thanks for all your replies and helpful advice and info. Sorry if my question seemed like Video factory can print to tape without rendering, it cannot that is why I wanted to know more about Vegas 4.
To Caruso, unfortunatly at this moment I cannot remember what web site I read about printing to tape without rendering with Vegas 4.
Looking foward to upgrading to Vegas 4 when financies allow.

Allan.
Caruso wrote on 4/2/2003, 8:01 PM
Allen:
If only I were the snippity type (whatever that is . . . I assure you it's not good)I would upbraid you properly. But, we, here on the Vegas forum are a friendly bunch and only comment to offer our assistance (and humble assistance it is, too!!).

Not being experienced with 'Factory, I can only venture a guess that Vegas will do all and more than that program, probably with greater ease and perhaps faster speed.

If you're itching to upgrade, my vote is to go for it. You will not be sorry.

Welcome, and good luck.

Caruso