Dale Mcclelland
Forum Replies Created
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Thanks, John. I just tried it and I agree — split/delete is as easy, or easier than, using a script.
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Thanks, John. Adding this line will be quicker than applying your original script then applying the “change fade type” script that I found. Now I can do it in one step by running your modified script.
I having been using VMS (currently v10 HD Platinum) for about a year, but am currently testing the trial version of Pro 64-bit in anticipation of a possible upgrade while the SCS upgrade special is on. For me, scripting is one of the strong attractions of the Pro version. I edit AVCHD clips from my camcorder and the audio is 5.1. Doing the fades with the mouse and the quarter-pie tool on 5 tracks (video and 4 audio) clip by clip, both in and out, was very time consuming. With your script it takes a matter of seconds. Thank you!!!
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Please disregard. I found a script to change audio fades. Sorry, I should have spent more time searching before posting the question.
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When you initially create a slideshow using Insert/Slideshow, there are two tabs in the resulting dialog. The dialog opens to the default tab that allows you to add pictures. The other tab is named “Settings” and allows you to select transitions.
I am not sure how/if you can change the transitions to random for a slideshow that has already been created.
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>>Unfortunately this has cost me about 30 hours of extra work<< Ouch! That's a lot of re-work, but hopefully a one-time event. Since you are new to VMS, I'll just mention this in case you haven't discovered it yet. You can trim in the "Trimmer Window", but most users prefer to trim in the time line by dragging the edges of the clip. Good luck.
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Ernie, I don’t use PMB anymore, but did use it when I first got my Sony camcorder and still have it installed on my PC. To see if I could replicate the problem, I used PMB to trim the first and last second off some unedited AVCHD clips. I put the trimmed clips on the time line in Vegas Movie Studio 10 Platinum and they played correctly in the preview window. I also previewed them frame-by-frame and saw no occurrence of a duplicate frame that makes the video appear to go backwards. Then I rendered them using the Sony AVC AVCHD template. The rendered file played correctly. I also tried changing some of the project properties to see if having those set incorrectly would create the problem. Even with incorrect project properties, I didn’t see duplicate frames in the VMS preview window.
I don’t know what could be causing the problem you are seeing. The only solution I can think of is to no longer use PMB. I found it to be an extra, unnecessary step in my work flow (but you may be finding it more useful than I did).
I still hope some of the more experienced Vegas users in the forum will respond with more useful suggestions. You could also post your problem in Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio forum if you don’t find a solution here in the CreativeCow Vegas forum.
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I do all my Movie Studio work with AVCHD clips, but I have not noticed this problem in Movie Studio. (I’ve used HD Platinum v9 and v10.) I used to use Corel’s VideoStudio X2 and X3. Both versions added an extra frame when rendering AVCHD, but only after a transition between clips. It was exactly like what you are seeing. In the rendered AVCHD file, there would be frame x, then x+1, then x again (the rendering process added the duplicate frame x). So it looked like the rendered video ran backwards for an instant.
There were long discussion threads about the problem in the Corel forums, but I haven’t seen any mention of extra frames in this forum, or in several Sony Vegas forums that I have been reading daily for almost a year. I would think if Movie Studio has a bug where it is adding frames, someone would have posted about it (it’s possible that someone did and I just missed it). That leads me to think that it could your settings, but I don’t have any ideas about which setting could cause this problem.
You mentioned “import settings”. Not sure if it matters, but I don’t use the “Import Media” function in VMS. I copy the clips from my camcorder to a hard drive, then use the “Explorer” tab in Movie Studio to drag clips to the time line. I doubt that has anything to do with the extra frames, but if you are actually using “Import Media” you could try the other method of getting clips into the time line.
Hopefully someone more experienced with VMS will be able to help.
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Ah, I think I see now. The higher bit rate Blu-ray file is less compressed than the original AVCHD. That makes sense and means that the render process isn’t creating bits that didn’t previously exist. Thanks for explaining – I hadn’t considered compression when trying to figure this out.
In case anyone is interested, here is a long-winded explanation of my reasoning for using MainConcept for rendering Blu-ray instead of Sony AVC, and for setting a higher target bit rate than the native clips:
1. The max bit rate in VMS for Sony AVC is 16 Mbs, which matches my camcorder, so should be fine. However,
2. I found in Movie Studio 9 Platinum, which I used before v10 came out, that the rendered file using Sony AVC had a somewhat reduced bit rate compared to the original clips – perhaps 500 to 750 bits/sec lower on average. My target media at that time was AVCHD on standard DVD discs, so I continued to use Sony AVC because it is the only one that had an AVCHD template.
3. With VMS 10, I found that the reduction in bit rate with Sony AVC is even greater than in version 9 (using the same clips with the same render settings). My native 16 Mbs clips, that almost always stay between 15 and 17 Mbs, end up at 14 to 16 in the rendered file and sometimes dips below 13, which never happens with the original clips. The reduction may or may not be visible when viewing the rendered video, but I just don’t like the idea that the bit rate ends up lower. The reason for that is:
I used to use a non-Vegas NLE and it reduced the bit rate even more, to the point that a difference in quality was clearly visible when viewing the rendered file, especially on panned footage where vertical edges had a stair-step effect that wasn’t present in the original clips. That not only led me look for a different NLE (ending up with VMS), it also caused me to associate a lower bit rate with lower picture quality.
My target media these days is a Blu-ray file for playing on a set top media player. The Main Concept Blu-ray settings allow for setting a higher target bit rate than Sony AVS, which limits Blu-ray to 16 Mbs (in Movie Studio, not sure about Pro). If I set it higher than the original clips, I’m hoping that the rendered file will have little or no reduction in quality that can be directly attributed to a reduction in bit rate. I’m not expecting that the rendered file will look better than the original clips, but want it to be as close as possible to the originals.
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>>One question for you: why do you use Sony AVC, and not MainConcept?<< I am using AVCHD clips from my camcorder as input to SVMS and my rendering target is 1920x1080i AVCHD .m2ts files for playing on a hardware media player, and also for burning to standard definition disks that can be played in high-def on a set top Blu-ray player. Sony AVC does that, so that is what I have always used. The only time I have rendered with MainConcept is their mpeg2 option when I want to make standard def DVD's. This morning I looked briefly at the MainConcept rendering options to see if I could produce a .m2ts AVCHD file. I didn't see a way to do it, but maybe I missed it. If MainConcept can produce a file fully equivalent to what I am getting with Sony AVC, and do it with less rendering time, I would switch, but at this point I am satisfied with Sony AVC.
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I’ll be interested to hear if you ever find out how to get Movie Studio to use the GPU. I currently render everything to Sony AVC, but don’t have an nVidia card. I’d probably buy one to replace my ATI card if I could be sure it would significantly improve rendering time.