dropped frames in Vegas, fine in Media Player

[Mike Kujbida]

The first thing to do is to make sure your project properties match your source footage.
To do this, open up the Properties window (File – Properties), click on the “Match Media Settings” icon (looks like a folder), browse to to folder that has camera footage in it, click any one of the clips and click “Open”.
Pay attention to the audio properties of the footage as this isn’t done automatically.
Your video properties will now match your source footage.
If you need to, switch to the audio tab and make any necessary changes.
This can be saved as a preset for future use.

Please let us know if this helps or not.

[Peter Mclennan]

Thanks, Mike. I did this during my attempts at debugging the problem. In fact, timeline playback got worse when I did this. : ) After matching project properties, playback speed was unaffected, but image quality was degraded.

When I select various “preview” modes (auto, full, half or quarter) image quality changes but frame rate does not.

Again, thanks for your help so far.

Peter

[Mike Kujbida]

Peter, I’m disappointed to hear that playback got worse as this usually solves the problem.
I googled that camera and it creates an H.264 AVI file which I’m sure is the source of your problems.
Unfortunately I can’t make any recommendations as to how to make it easier to edit/play with this particular codec.
The software they have for it is, unfortunately, designed to run on iMovie so it looks like you’re SOL unless you want to spend even more money 🙁

[Peter Mclennan]

Thanks, Mike. It’s a neat little camera, but not being able to edit is a bummer. Perhaps this picture will change if the camera becomes more popular.

What do you mean by “spending even more money”? What would I need to do. Not buy a Mac, surely? : ) : )

I’ll try a lower quality capture and see if things change.

Again, thanks!

Peter

[Peter Mclennan]

What did you mean, Mike about “spending more money”? Not buy a Mac, surely? : )

[Mike Kujbida]

Peter, that’s exactly what I meant 🙂
I know, shudder, shiver, going over to the “dark” side, etc.!!
BTW, this is said in jest and no offense is meant to any Mac users.

[Peter Mclennan]

That ain’t gonna happen. : )

[Mike Kujbida]

Somehow I didn’t think it would 🙂
All I can suggest at this point is to post your question on the Sony Vegas forum here on the Cow as there are a lot of users there with more experience than I have dealing with codec issues and they may have ideas that I haven’t thought of.

[Peter Mclennan]

Mike, the Creative Vado shoots in three qualities. “HD+”, “HD” and “VGA”. HD+ playback in Vegas is very poor, as I’ve posted, VGA plays perfectly in Vegas and HD plays quite well, not dropping frames at all. I see some tearing of the video during pans, but that’s probably due to my 4 year old Matrox card.

So, it’s definitely a bandwidth issue. 🙂

The good news is:

0) I can edit Creative Vado footage in Vegas
1) “HD” looks virtually as good as “HD+”
2) I don’t have to buy a Mac. : ) KIDDING, you Mac people!

This is a great little camcorder. Its lens is much wider than anything else out there and that’s a VERY good thing.

Thanks for your help. All I needed was a push to do a little experimenting.

[Mike Kujbida]

Great news Peter!!
I always tell my students to read the manual for the piece of gear they’re using and then start playing to see what happens when you push the various buttons.
It’s (almost) impossible to really mess anything up and you can learn a lot by playing around.