Vegas movie studio - rip off?

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 3:24 AM

I recently bought the new Sony Vegas studio 11 program after seeing rave reviews in magazines. I installed it but on trying to capture video from my camcorder I found that I had a black screen. Obviously it is impossible to capture footage properly if you cannot see what you are capturing. This renders the program useless because if you cannot capture video you have nothing to edit.

I contacted Sony and was told it was a know issue and would be fixed in a future update. I was given no idea as to when any update might be available despite asking . I asked for a refund and was told that if the software had been opened it could not be returned. no-one could know that the software does not work without opening it and installing it.

I have paid a not small sum for a program that effectively is useless and have no way of getting my money back. I will now have to buy another editing program that actually works.

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 9/7/2011, 3:45 AM

Ok you've had your rant - to make your post useful, how about telling us exactly what sort of camera footage it is that doesn't show?

As I'm sure you realise, a program doesn't get to version 11 without being able to capture and display video, so it would be good to know what format is involved here.

By the way, you could have downloaded and tried the sofware for nothing, to see if it worked with your camera.

paul_w wrote on 9/7/2011, 3:50 AM

And please fill in your system specs in your profile. Then the forum will be more willing / able to help you.

Paul.

Rory Cooper wrote on 9/7/2011, 4:18 AM

Are you trying to capture AVCHD? :-)

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 4:30 AM

It was Sony's tech people that told me it was known issue but offered no help, of course I am not happy. I also did not like the abrupt answers given.

I am trying to capture standard video, something I am sure the program should be capable of by build 220!.

I would appreciate any help you guys are willing to give but if Sony don't have the answer and you do what does that say about the service at Sony?.

My camcorder is a canon XL2. I will put in my system spec as soon as I work out where and how. th footage is as I said standard def 16.9 60i.

Thanks for your replys.

paul_w wrote on 9/7/2011, 4:40 AM

The system info can be entered by clicking "Forum Settings" above and then click "System Info" in the link given.

Paul.

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 4:52 AM

I have entered my system settings. Let me know if you need any further info.

Cheers

I don't know if it makes any difference but I have the movie studio suite version.

PeterWright wrote on 9/7/2011, 5:07 AM

It's quite surprising that SD DV from an XL2 won't work - if this is something that went awry with version 11, the very least they should do is offer a free download of version 10 whilst they sort this.

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 5:12 AM

Peter,

You can see why I am frustrated. To my mind this is basic for a program that boasts so much. I am not an expert by any means but I have use editing programs in the past. I used Avid liquid (with no problems) for years but because this is not supported any longer I thought I would try Vegas, I did not feel I needed the pro version but I may have upgraded later if I felt I needed to. I dont think I will do so now after this.

John_Cline wrote on 9/7/2011, 5:27 AM

In the meantime, there are a number of ways to capture SD DV footage from your XL2.

You might try WinDV, it's simple and free. I haven't tried it in Win7.

http://windv.mourek.cz/

For DV capture, I have always used Scenalyzer, it's not free but absolutely worth the $34 I spent on it. This program has been very popular among Vegas users for many years.

http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html

The footage captured by either of these programs can then easily be edited in Vegas Studio.

amendegw wrote on 9/7/2011, 5:49 AM

First, somehow your system specs did not get updated:

Second, anyone know if the vidcap utility in Vegas Movie Studio is the same as the one in Vegas Pro (you do know you're posting to the Vegas Pro forum, don't you?)

Third, I just tried opening the Vegas Pro Vidcap program on my laptop and was surprised to find out that the capture device defaulted to my Webcam. You do have the correct capture device selected, don't you?

...Jerry

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/7/2011, 6:30 AM

It's never really mattered to me if I see my video in the window because it's DV and it's there.

However, Vidcap has never failed for me. Does it detect your camera?

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 6:40 AM

I did not know I was on the pro board. I did a search for vegas 11 and posted where it took me.

I installed the trial version of scenalizer. It does not recognise my camcorder.
In Vegas I now have a blue screen with the words preview is turned off and under the capture device it says cirrus logic USB DVR source.so it does not seem to recognise my camcorder now either. there does not seem to be any way of changing this.

I will try to put my system info up again

John_Cline wrote on 9/7/2011, 6:44 AM

Wait a minute! Does the Canon XL2 even have a USB port? You do have it hooked up via Firewire don't you?

If Scenalyzer isn't recognizing the camera, then Vegas is probably not your problem.

Former user wrote on 9/7/2011, 7:02 AM

Are you running Windows 7? Are you trying to capture through firewire?

Dave T2

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 7:37 AM

I have vista 32bit I have the camcorder connected via firewire.

I just checked and my system info is in my profile.. I had not checked the box. sorry.

farss wrote on 9/7/2011, 7:48 AM

I doubt your system specs have anything to do with it.
The problem seems to be that you are not even trying to capture from your camera.
Somewhere there should be an option to select the device you want to capture from in the video capture pane.
The other possible problem is your firewire port on your PC or camera is stuffed or the cable is faulty.
Also Windows itself should see the device, if it doesn't Vegas will not be able to capture from it.

Bob.

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 7:58 AM

Thanks for your help so far. OK I just checked the firewire cable and pushed it into the computer which now recognises it. again. I must have pulled on it when I pluged the camcorder in earlier. I can control the camcorder from within vegas but I am getting a blue screen saying display suspended during capture. This is not what I was getting before I simply had a black screen. Problem is I want to capture sections of the tape not the whole tape and if I cannot see it while capturing I cant do this.

Former user wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:02 AM

After you fixed the plug, did you reboot or restart Vegas?

Dave T2

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:03 AM

the camcorder shows up as Microsoft camera or VCR is this normal?

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:05 AM

I restarted Vegas but I did not reboot the computer.

amendegw wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:31 AM

"Problem is I want to capture sections of the tape not the whole tape and if I cannot see it while capturing I cant do this."
"the camcorder shows up as Microsoft camera or VCR is this normal? "

That's what I see when connecting to a DV Camcorder.

...Jerry

Kimberly wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:31 AM

Greetings Rip:

I used to capture DV a lot in VMS 9. It's been a while, but I believe the blue screen you mentioned is normal until the tape starts playing. Then you can see your footage. I also remember being able to turn off the display of your footage during capture to save processing power. Maybe that feature is enabled?

Sometimes I had to start playing the tape so that it would display on the screen, then select "record" or whatever the radio button says to begin the actual capture. I realize you want to capture just a portion of the tape, but see if you can get it going and then once you know it works, you can fine tune. Also don't forget to enable scene detection if you want a separate clip for each time that you start/stop the camcorder. Otherwise you will get one big ginormous clip and that's a pain if you wanted separate clips.

Good luck!

Ripped off wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:35 AM

I have discovered that if \i have the option always preview video selected I get a black screen if I select smart preview video I get the blue screen with the words ..
preview suspended during capture.

amendegw wrote on 9/7/2011, 8:52 AM

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but the you have pressed the "play" button on the vidcap display, correct?

Also, the Options->Preferences->General->Enable DV Device Controls is checked?

...Jerry