Vegas won't read my .TIF files? ...or whats the best picture format?

sofakng wrote on 10/3/2003, 1:19 PM
I've scanned in a bunch (119 to be exact) of photo's as uncompressed TIFF's. Adobe Photoshop reads them perfectly fine and so does ACDSee.

However, when I try to drag them onto the Vegas timeline, it gives me the "NO!" type of symbol. When I try to File --> Import Media, I get this error:

File C:\Documents and Settings\John\My Documents\My Pictures\FINAL SCANS\Atlantic City\scan0002.tif could not be opened.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm pretty sure Vegas uses Quicktime for .TIF files, but I have Quicktime installed (maybe I'm missing a component of quicktime?)

Also, I was wondering if I should convert my .TIF's to another format if that would help Vegas. I'd like to use a loseless format though if possible. These pictures are big (1800x1200 pixels, 6.5 MB approximately), but that shouldn't matter I would think.

Comments

Grazie wrote on 10/3/2003, 1:22 PM
PNGs and JPEGS - does for me. . . pngs are nicely tranni . .

Grazie
jetdv wrote on 10/3/2003, 1:37 PM
To read TIFs, you must have the AUTHORING components of quicktime installed. Just reinstall Quicktime, choose "Custom" and pick everything on the list. Then it should work. However, it will be slower than PNG or PSD or JPG.
sofakng wrote on 10/3/2003, 2:25 PM
If I convert from (uncompressed) .TIF to .PNG will that be a loseless conversion? Is .PNG a loseless format?
busterkeaton wrote on 10/3/2003, 2:26 PM
Since you have Photoshop, it's probably best to now save png copies of your pics.

As jetdv noted it will be faster. Better to spend some time now, rather than work slower in Vegas.
BJ_M wrote on 10/3/2003, 3:08 PM
i suggest not to use png in vegas as there is a issue with alpha w/ pngs and as well , they will have a color shift .. I think even SPOT agreed with me on this point when i brought it up before ..

basicly for best perfomance - use anything that doesnt use qt to read them ..

I prefer targa (compressed or uncompressed) , though jpegs are used at times and can work really well ..

PH125 wrote on 10/3/2003, 10:50 PM
targa is definately the way to go, it's crips and clear and I've never had a problem
Spot|DSE wrote on 10/3/2003, 10:56 PM
TGA, PNG, JPEG, in that order for me.....TGA is always my first choice, but sometimes it's a pain in the butt to convert, depending on the photo editor. So, PNG works. Nice thing about TGA is that alpha doesn't shift at all, whereas sometimes w/png, if the alpha isn't absolutely clean, it shifts not only the alpha, giving weird artifacts, but it also will shift colors. But.....
PNG's render faster. So do JPEGS. So do GIF's.
I submit it depends on what you are working with as a photo editor.
r56 wrote on 10/4/2003, 4:33 AM
Few months ago I did some color tests using the various graphic formats Vegas can handle. To my surprise I found out that the png format was causing greater color shift to some colors of a PAL bar test pattern compared to the other formats.
We had a discussion at the DMN forum about it with DSE and you BJ_M. in August.
If anyone here is interested I can upload the color test results and post the link.
sofakng wrote on 10/5/2003, 10:35 AM
Thanks for the advice!

I'll use targ's then. My photo-editting program is Photoshop 7.0 but I sometimes use ACDSee to convert images. I'm assuming targa (uncompressed) will be the way to go.

Thanks again for the advice.
B_JM wrote on 10/5/2003, 1:15 PM
i really see no speed diff using compressed or uncompressed targas (and compressed is a WHOLE lot smallerwhen you start geting into 2k and above renders ..) both are a lossless format ..

btw -- if your editing app has an issue with targa 's you can frame serve them with tmpegenc or virtualdub Mod