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Videoon 11/21/2001
16:9 adapter and letterboxing
Which version of Vegas are you using? 2.0 what letter afterwards? Do you have DX8? Also, what are your project settings? Your description sounds like a codec problem. (All the more reason to own Vegas 3.0, it has it's own codec that BLOWS Microsoft's codec outta da water!)
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Videoon 11/21/2001
V.V. 3's Manual...
I'm gonna guess that there is no mention of how to use them because: There ARE so many variables, and messing with the wrong combinations, of which there are even more variables, will lead to difficulty. Different kinds of media require different approaches. The templates are fairly complete and laid out to standards that have been tested at length. Because they may only want to provide template-based tech support. Check out www.mpeg.org to get an idea of how BIG your question and the answer might really be. 'Course, I'm just guessing.
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Videoon 11/21/2001
Capture Card for Vegas Video
Make SURE that the Firewire card you get is OHCI compliant. ADS, SIIG, Unibrain are all good cards. The video image quality will be the same on all OHCI cards, it's a ubiquitous standard. However, cheap cards will suck voltage with less stability and cause dropped frames, crashes, and other irritations, so avoid the bargain basement no name cards. Stay away from the CompUSA brand cards, and other mass store brand cards, because they are just jobbered from the cheapest card makers in Taiwan. The Firewire/OHCI card is the card supported for output to an external monitor for ADR or Foley work. The card spits the video out in digital form. A camera, deck, or converter device are required to turn the digital signal back to an NTSC or PAL signal for the monitor to receive.
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Videoon 11/21/2001
Problem with fields when stretching video in VV 2.0.
You also should split the event just before you do the speed change, so that all of the media in the clip isn't affected. This will speed your render time significantly. 3.0 also has a "quantize to frames" feature that will assure that your time stretch/collapse will stay within one frame. This is a default feature that you'll need to turn off should you not want it.
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Videoon 11/21/2001
Please explain the basics...
In just going back and re-reading your question, I should have also explained that the drums, guitars, etc are mic'd just as you would do in any traditional recording situation. The mic's still plug into cables, cables into preamps (which used to be only found in mixers) then the preamp plugs into your digital audio converter (DAC) which then places the recorded signal live into Vegas where you have meters, pans, volume, gain, just like you do in a traditional studio environ.
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Videoon 11/20/2001
Audio Mastering for DVD,VHS, and CD
>Are there certain frequencies that you need to be aware of? Such as bass/treble roll-offs? Or do you mean dynamic range? Such as audio can only be -6db rather than 0? By 'mash,' I mean both. You must limit the dynamic range of audio AND limit the frequency range. First off, I don't understand where you get the "6dB is really 0dB" as it's not so. General practice is that digital tones are set at -12dB to -18dB for a '0' analog setting/duping. In our house, we set tone at -12dB, with a limiter set to -3dB for dupe-oriented projects. Critical that digital never crosses zero. Equally critical is that dynamic range be limited to not more than 20dB. In fact, in the real, calibrated world, 0dB analog is the same as -20dB digital. Or you could look at it by saying that 0dB digital equals +20dB analog, take your pick. Currently, SOFO's setting in Vegas is non-adjustable and too hot at output by 6dB when matched to a standard Digibeta or mirror mother machine's VU meters. That being said, be sure you don't have audio going beyond 10K, as it's just going to get lost in broadcast compression. Same with audio below 120hz. this is what I mean by 'mashed.' Worse, if you send off a digital project that hasn't been prepped for NTSC standards (vegas has a video-only clamping plug for this) then you'll see the results of audio messing up picture, or worse, non-legal picture messing up audio. If you don't believe that picture or audio can screw with each other, try rendering a 10 second stream of color bar with a 1Ktone set to +12dB. Then take the same render, impose a series of titles over top of it. (using Vegas title tool) watch the picture. Notice that the titles appear to be jiggling, aliased? that's the audio breaking up the video signal. Now, go into photoshop or some other graphic edit app. Build a title that is non-legal in color. Make sure the blacks are absolute zero, and that the whites are 255/255/255. Insert the title into Vegas, without the color clamp on. Take your favorite piece of music that you know very well, place it on the timeline. print to tape, preferably VHS, as this is more like broadcast tape, and listen to the audio. Notice how it's distorted, even though it was clean when previewing? For a better example, take the same non-legal graphic and fade it in and out over a picture that is legal in Vegas. You'll 'hear' the video fades in your audio. I know I've strayed a bit from your question, but with so many people getting into the video field with dreams of being the next Steven Spielberg, it's critical to understand video. Learn what legal colors and audio mean. Learn what IRE means, learn how to compose external graphics like jpg's, bmp's, gif's png's, etc. You'll be amazed at what a difference a small amount of knowledge can make in your picture. Hope this small amount of info helps. My fingers are tired now.
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Videoon 11/20/2001
Please explain the basics...
I love these...=) Vegas is intuitively easy to learn, especially for those not yet initiated into the world of hard disk recording or non-linear systems. Vegas is the most powerful editor out there bar none, with very few excepting features. If it had surround, DTS or THX, and a few other little giggles, it would have absolutely no competition. You don't need an external mixer at all, Vegas is capable of delivering all the automation you need. The reverbs, compressors, etc are decent, but not up to world class par. You need to get 3rd party plugs if you want to have those quality level sounds. That being said, did I mention that I've won a Grammy and an Emmy using Vegas 1.0 and 2.0, and earned top ratings at Sundance Film Festival and other similar festivals, again using Vegas? And just completed a 1 hour PBS documentary using Vegas for both the audio (18 tracks) and video? (up to 25 video tracks in some spots) ProTools looks impressive to those who don't know what all it does, can't do, etc. Vegas is nowhere near as sexy looking, but actually is more stable, does more, and costs a little less. You need either a couple of compatible sound cards (worst way/poorest sound way to go) or a solid multichannel DAC (digital audio converter) like a device from Echo, Midiman, Frontier, etc. Use Vegas under XP or Win2K to take advantage of WDM drivers for nearly zero latency, depending on the speed of your machine. Get the fastest machine you can if you are really serious about audio. I use 4 dual processor systems, the slowest being 1 gig with 1 gig of RAMBUS. I also have dual AMD systems with a gig of DDR Registered. Get fast harddrives, preferably SCSIUW/LVD. Yeah, you can do audio on IDE/ATA100 drives, but SCSIUW is still the best for throughput. Costs more, but is worth it. If you are a closet warrior/weekend musician, then you'll probably be fine with the 7200 spin IDE/ATA100 drives. Be sure DMA is enabled. Have a minimum of 2 hard drives, one for the application and OS, and at least one for the audio to live on. 2 40 gig drives are better than 1 80 gig drive. Have a good mic preamp. Use a good mic. With a good DAC, a good pre, a good mic, the only variables become talent and the room noise. Beef up the talent, chill out the room noise/bounce, and you've got yourself a world class studio. BTW, during the Beta phase of 3.0, I was able to create over 100 tracks of audio, full length, 4 minutes long with no glitching, and was able to apply 4 plugin effects on several of the channels before I started to choke the system. It's rare that anyone would have that many channels open at one time. Comps are usually done before such a large morass of audio gets the chance to grow. The other thing that's really great about NLE's, is that you can save many, many mixes, so you can recall every thing you ever did on a project. I LOVE that. The media is not affected by anything you do in Vegas, as Vegas is non-destructive, so you can have very small project files all pointing to the same media. In other words, the killer mix you had late last night, versus the one that the bass player made this morning? Do a 'save as' and store it, you can ALWAYS call it back....Handy for pleasing several people, comparing mixes, etc. In fact, many times I've had 2 versions of the same project open, and bounced back and forth between then to see what I like better. Go for it!
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Videoon 11/20/2001
Un-install Beta?
Actually, every message on the Betas that I've ever seen from SOFO (and everyone else' betas) is pretty clear that a BETA should ALWAYS be uninstalled prior to installing the new one. The whole point of a BETA is that there are driver updates, code changes, page changes, etc, and it's important that the old files don't conflict with the new ones. This is why some companies don't open their products up to the general public for Beta testing, because invariably there are folks who don't understand the beta process, treating the app as though it's a final release. When things go awry, and they often do with anybody's beta, non-experienced users blame the company for 'blowing up their computer.' It's a beta. There are simply some things that all users of beta software should know, aside from reading the warnings, known bug issues, known 'non-working/yet to be resolved' tools, filters, plugins, etc. In the case of one product I was beta testing several months ago, they were writing for XP, which wasn't released yet, so some features were temporarily disabled until more of XP's code was completed by Microsoft. One of these 'disabled' features nailed my registry pretty hard. With a boot partition on a separate drive, I was up and running again in 5-6 minutes. But I beta test for a lot of companies, and know that this is common among beta users. Always be prepared for the worst. It's beta ware, not gold ware. Don't pick on SOFO if they didn't scream with 100pt headlines that you should uninstall, backup, protect, and prepare for a problem. That's the nature of the Beta game. Be glad that SOFO is one of the few companies around who care enough about their users to offer public betas. And be glad that you aren't on the non-public beta team, if uninstalling the beta, etc bothers you. Cuz' I can think of several builds in the non-public environment that had severe problems, causing loads of headaches. Ones that only experienced beta testers have to deal with. ROCK ON SOFO!
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Videoon 11/20/2001
Slide Show Help?
First, not sure what you mean by "using Dazzle to maintain image quality?" Dazzle is not a high quality tool by any stretch, but if it's what you got, it's what you got. As far as a still image slide show, either Video Factory 2 or Vegas 2.0 or 3.0 can easily do this. Where is the output file going to go? On the web? On VHS tape? To CD/VCD/DVD? All would be treated differently. You mentioned you bought it for the MPEG plug, so assuming that you are using this for output to VCD, SVCD, or DVD, you'll want to make the photos fill the entire screen area, won't you? You can either take all the photos into a photo editor and resize them/crop them to a size of 360x240, 72 dpi, or you can just import them into Vegas and crop them there. For sake of rendering/output time/color management, you'll want to be sure to not have files any larger than they need to be, ie; 72 dpi to 100 dpi resolution is as large as they should be. Larger files sizes are only cumulatively more difficult for your computer to handle, and unnecessary. Make sure you use the NTSC/Broadcast clamp plugin if this is destined for VHS or other broadcastable media. Not important if only destined for computer viewing or DVD. As far as making the photos appear to move, Vegas can easily do that, or you can just have smooth dissolves, or plain hard cuts on your pix. Hope this helps a little bit.
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Videoon 11/20/2001
Audio Mastering for DVD,VHS, and CD
Different mixes are required for various delivery methods. For instance, VHS and broadcast/NTSC require that you mash the audio significantly. If you don't, the bandwidth of audio can easily damage your video quality. Same goes with not having true NTSC color values on your video, if it's destined for VHS or NTSC spaces. The bright whites that exceed 100 IRE will play havoc with your high end, and cause distortion in the audio. For DVD, you can get away with several audio mixes, depending on your authoring tool. If you have a good authoring tool, you can do an AC3/surround mix, a 'bit down' 2 track stereo mix for watching on a normal television or computer screen, and a foreign language, band commentary, etc track as well. You also don't need to worry anywhere near as much about bandwidth/frequency response with DVD as you do for broadcast or duplication.
Spot|DSE
Offline, Member since 2/2/2001