only seeing black

[Steve Rhoden]

Seems maybe, you may have some corrupted codec issues there.
The way to fix this is to run the check disk utility…
then restart your computer.

How?
Open run from the start menu,then type in chkdsk c:/f
then click ok, after, press the Y for yes, then do a restart.

Still, im not sure if this will offer a solution but its
worth a try.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Creative Arts Director and Film Maker.
Project Samples at:
http://www.youtube.com/hentys

[John Rofrano]

What format is the source media?

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Chris Nickila]

I am using a sony dv camcorder that records in mpg format. I have saved movies out before and have had mixed results.

Thanks
Chris

[John Rofrano]

> I am using a sony dv camcorder that records in mpg format. I have saved movies out before and have had mixed results.

That doesn’t seem right. DV camcorders shoot DV. Did you mean DVD camcorder? What model? How are you capturing the footage? If you really are using MPG footage and chroma key that could be the problem. DVD quality MPG is a poor format for editing. You really should consider buying a different camera if you intent is to edit and chroma key footage. Otherwise, convert the MPG footage to DV AVI before you edit it.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Chris Nickila]

Maybe it is dvd, its a sony dcr sx40. I am already very far along with the editing. is this going to be a problem with saving out? do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks

[Chris Nickila]

One more thing to my last post. this is what it says for the video specifications on a site I looked at.

Format : SD (MPEG2)
Video Signal : NTSC color, EIA standards

[John Rofrano]

> Maybe it is dvd, its a sony dcr sx40.

OK, the Sony DCR-SX40 is just an memory stick Handycam that shoots MPEG2 (not DV or DVD). Have you ever rendered anything from the camera before? What format are you trying to render to? I would start a new project, place a single clip on the timeline and render the clip. See if that works first.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Chris Nickila]

Thanks, just out of curiosity would I be better off just editing the mpeg 2 video, rendering that to another format and then adding all the chroma key effects? I have way to much video in mpeg 2 format to reder it all and then edit it and I am pretty far along. My goal is to get the final product to look as good as possible in dvd format. I really appreciate all the help.

Thanks

Chris

[John Rofrano]

I’m not convinced that the chroma key is the problem. That’s why I said to render some unprocessed MPEG2 video first and see if there is some other problem. I have done entire projects with MPEG2 footage that a client gave me from his DVD camera and I used Mercalli to steady the footage and I edited it just like any other footage and had no problems at all.

There is no logical explanation for your problem. That’s why I would try to methodically try and build a new project adding one more thing and render at each step to see if at some point you can recreate the problem. It may just be the length of the project and amount of FX and capacity of your computer to process it all. We just don’t know.

If you want to render it all to another format and then add the chroma key, I would render to DV AVI. You will loose some color information but it’s a format that is relatively small and works well with Vegas. Otherwise you could install a codec like Huffyuv or Lagarith which are both lossless but produce much larger files. It is just less of a hassle to use DV because Vegas already has it installed.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Chris Nickila]

I tried closing out and then opening it back up and it seems to be working (at least the preview was showing up as it was rendering, although I did not actaully finish rendering it since it was going to take a while). If it is working would you suggest that I seperatly render my projects from the mpeg 2 fomat with the chroma key to DV AVI and then compile all of thoes project files into one main project file and then use the make a movie feature to save it as dvd format? Thanks again, I am just not that familiar with the formatting.