[John Gregoriades]

John,
I thought I’d give you an update FYI on the issue of flicker/shimmer I encountered. There were too many still photos to do invidually (if I could could avoid it.) But playing with it, I discovered that Vegas had a control: Project/Properties/Video which would allow a “Field Order” to set upper or lower field order first, which I tried at the lower setting.
This totally removed the cyclical flicker/shimmer, but did worsen the previously fine, steady view of the still pictures that had been given the “pan/crop” treatment. (Sort of what you expected to see.)
I then tried setting the “Field Order”: “None” and “Deinterlace”: “None.”
These two controls together cleaned up the video and it looks fine, the way it should look.
Many thanks!
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, John, for your super-prompt reply. I hope that your solution will work. However, I must be blind, because I searched, e.g., Options, and cannot locate the “events” control in Vegas, in order to reduce the interlace flicker. Could you give me a little more explicit direction where that control is located?
John
Incidentally this “every 3.1 second” cyclical flicker/shimmer occurs only on totally still photos – not on photos which have been given the “Event Pan/Crop” treatment. I gather this is the opposite of what you were expecting.

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Hello Mike,
To tell the truth, I had to go away from this work, and now that I’m back on it, I’m still struggling with it a bit.
Here’s where I’m at:

First, the Cam is a Nokia N95 8G which has a 5 Megapixel still sensor. Takes reasonably good photos, too! It also shoots video in the xxx.MP4 format.
I cannot tell what “size” the resulting frames are; a still taken using Vegas from the timeline measures 327×240 @ 200 pixels per inch but I don’t know if that’s a Vegas default or the Nokia’s native size. I wonder if you have any idea what is its native “size.”
Now, regarding your guidance:
“Match Output Aspect” feature in Pan/Crop to get them to fit. {I can adjust the width and height to my liking, with the “Maintain aspect ratio” set to YES for the first clip. OK so far, but did not find your particular quote,”Match Output…” perhaps it differs on versions of Vegas.}
Do this to the first clip, copy it. {I don’t quite know how to “copy” it.}
click the next one {I assume you mean click anywhere on the next video clip to select the clip}, “Select Events to End” {which requires a right-click and then the command “Select Events…OK got it} and do a “Paste Event Attributes” {Haven’t figured out where to find the command to do this paste business}.
So I’m a bit hung up on a) How to “copy” the pan/crop size selected, and b) how to “Paste event attributes.
Many thanks in advance.
John
p.s. Occasionally I save presets (of various kinds) by naming them, to use through a whole project, but then I want to delete such presets. Where can they be found to be removed?

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Mike,
Please accept my much-belated thanks for your response to my question.

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, Mike. Much appreciated.
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Many thanks to both you gentlemen, for your quick responses.
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Many thanks, Joe.
Sorry for my late response; occasionally real world situations get in the way of my fun hobby.
All is working well by following your suggestions. I found it easier to use a separate video track.
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you Joe, this is very helpful. I tried it. One question more: The track motion appears to affect, somehow, the entire track, not just the particular clip on that track. It does not change the size of the other clips, but in some cases, where I already have a black background, it changes it into a different shade of black.
Should I place the clip that I want to reduce, onto a separate video track, and apply the track motion to that track only?

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you all for your prompt and helpful advice. I guess in my situation the bottom line is to get a “HD-Ready” (13??x7??) flat TV, for about 60% of the price “Full-HD”, and when HD arrives here, or when I decide to invest in an HD Camcorder and Blueray. Since I won’t be able to watch any broadcasts in HD (I’ve seen a friend’s 52″ in California recently and it is absolutely stunning, even up close) I’ll save the difference and by then the price would be even lower.
Many thanks again.
John

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Many thanks, again, John. You have provided me with excellent guidance and I’ve already produced an acceptable quality DVD. (Especially sharp when viewed in one of the new flat-screen 32″ TVs last nite.)
Just to clarify my confusion, you asked what made me think that the Canon A620 photos are at 1.33 ratio. That comes from the photos being 3072×2304 pixels, which the W divided by the H = 1.3333 or a 4:3 ratio). Vegas uses (for NTSC) 654×480 which is a 1.3625 ratio, in other words the latter is slightly “flatter” than the cam’s photo. This results in a very tiny amount of black vertical stripes on either side of the video. Vegas appears to be designed to “give the max full picture it can,” and letterbox either horizontally or vertically, to avoid cropping, if the photo’s ratio is not a match for its 654×480. (An excellent design.)
I misunderstood what you meant by HD’s ratio. Dividing 1920 by 1080 gives 1.777 ratio, which of course is the new, wide-aspect screen. Obviously, resampling a 1.333 photo at that particular (approx 9:5) ratio would give the photo an undesirable stretched look. But resampling them at 1920×1440 cuts down the original size, keeps acceptable quality, and maintains the 1.333 ratio.
I think I “got it” and many thanks again!
John

John23GR