Basically, I need to know what constitutes a 'scene' when capturing by scenes. Also, how does the Vegas Capture utility know what a scene is with respect to the tape in the DV camera?
My system has always split scenes into many clips (files). e.g. five scenes (by my intuitive definition) would split into about 20-30 (or more) .avi files. In one case I have captured one 19-minute single scene several times while trouble-shooting the problem. This 'scene' is just a talking-head interview where the camera ran untouched for 19 minutes and was then turned off. On my system this was split into 105 separate .avi files. When re-capturing in order to find the problem it has always split into a different number of files ranging from dozens to the lowest count of 7 .avi files.
This is problematic in itself but the worst point is that these files should ALL be Lower Field First (PAL) but are randomly Upper Field First and/or Progressive mixed with Lower Field First. I am compelled to go through many 100's of avi files (in Vegas) and manually switch them all to Lower Field First one at a time (batch doesn't do it). e.g. the above-mentioned 7 files (for one scene) had only 3 Lower Field First and 4 Upper Field First. With 100's of files (clips), this is an untenable situation.
After many months of experimenting I have now tried two other DV cameras on both my system (Win98SE) and another system (WinXP) both with different firewire cards. In each case the 'foreign' devices produced only ONE .avi file for the 19-minute interview while my camera always produced several files with many if not most of them being Upper Field First and/or Progressive. I thus have evidence as good as proof to blame the camera, a Panasonic NV-DS38A, and not blame either Vegas or any other system components.
The problem is that, when I ring the local Panasonic helpline (Australia) no-one knows what I'm talking about. They recommended me to send the camera to their approved repair centre(s) which I did. They couldn't help at all and said they didn't have the appropriate resources to confirm this problem one way or the other. I now have to write to the support manager detailing the problem.
Therefore, in order to forestall any allocating of blame to Vegas, my computer, my firewire card etc., I need some knowledge .....
Basically, what does Vegas consider is a 'scene'?
How does Vegas know when a scene starts and stops?
Is it the firewire card that does it all and the camera is innocent? (Not from what I have seen from tests).
What kind of scene information or code is stored on the camera video tape or is 'sent' by the camera?
I am, in fact, absolutely certain that the camera is at fault but I will need to convince Panasonic. Knowing a few more technical facts will help, I hope.
Sorry for the long post, but it's way shorter than the phone calls I've been having that have so far got me nowhere.
Regards,
Neil Porter
My system has always split scenes into many clips (files). e.g. five scenes (by my intuitive definition) would split into about 20-30 (or more) .avi files. In one case I have captured one 19-minute single scene several times while trouble-shooting the problem. This 'scene' is just a talking-head interview where the camera ran untouched for 19 minutes and was then turned off. On my system this was split into 105 separate .avi files. When re-capturing in order to find the problem it has always split into a different number of files ranging from dozens to the lowest count of 7 .avi files.
This is problematic in itself but the worst point is that these files should ALL be Lower Field First (PAL) but are randomly Upper Field First and/or Progressive mixed with Lower Field First. I am compelled to go through many 100's of avi files (in Vegas) and manually switch them all to Lower Field First one at a time (batch doesn't do it). e.g. the above-mentioned 7 files (for one scene) had only 3 Lower Field First and 4 Upper Field First. With 100's of files (clips), this is an untenable situation.
After many months of experimenting I have now tried two other DV cameras on both my system (Win98SE) and another system (WinXP) both with different firewire cards. In each case the 'foreign' devices produced only ONE .avi file for the 19-minute interview while my camera always produced several files with many if not most of them being Upper Field First and/or Progressive. I thus have evidence as good as proof to blame the camera, a Panasonic NV-DS38A, and not blame either Vegas or any other system components.
The problem is that, when I ring the local Panasonic helpline (Australia) no-one knows what I'm talking about. They recommended me to send the camera to their approved repair centre(s) which I did. They couldn't help at all and said they didn't have the appropriate resources to confirm this problem one way or the other. I now have to write to the support manager detailing the problem.
Therefore, in order to forestall any allocating of blame to Vegas, my computer, my firewire card etc., I need some knowledge .....
Basically, what does Vegas consider is a 'scene'?
How does Vegas know when a scene starts and stops?
Is it the firewire card that does it all and the camera is innocent? (Not from what I have seen from tests).
What kind of scene information or code is stored on the camera video tape or is 'sent' by the camera?
I am, in fact, absolutely certain that the camera is at fault but I will need to convince Panasonic. Knowing a few more technical facts will help, I hope.
Sorry for the long post, but it's way shorter than the phone calls I've been having that have so far got me nowhere.
Regards,
Neil Porter