John Rofrano
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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> The camera I used was a SVP T-200 HD.
In general, none of these cheap H264 cameras produce footage that can be edited in any NLE. They write a non-standard format of H264 that just isn’t compatible.
If the maker of the camera gave you video editing software, you can editing with that. Your other option is to use a video converter program to convert the footage into something Vegas can edit. Perhaps a program like Super(c) using the free Huffyuv or Lagarith codec.
The next time you purchase a video camera, make sure it uses AVCHD or HDV or some other “standard” video format that NLE’s like Vegas support if you plan to edit the footage. Otherwise these cameras are great for just shoot-n-watch.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Did you really mean VCD PAL MPEG-1? Why?? You are going from HD 16:9 widescreen to VCD which is less than 4:3… it’s almost square. Your problem is that you are judging placement on a project that bears no resemblance to the aspect of your final output. Set your project properties to match your output and there will be no surprises.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
> Another quick question… How can I tell how much video I can fit onto a DVD?
You can fit about 80 minutes at the standard bit rate. After that you have to reduce the quality or use a double-layer DVD.
> I am confused though, because the one DVD I burned, as I look in properties at it’s size- it says it is 18.9 GB but the DVD only holds 4.7 GB or 120 min On the DVD, it says length is 01:29:23
18.9GB sounds like the size of the source AVI file. DVD Architect will take your source and convert it to MPEG2 which is quite smaller.
> The one I have going now- the left upper corner of the timeline says 01:43:08;29 I assumed this was the length? Is this 1 hour 43 minutes etc?
Yes that’s 1 hr, 43 minutes, 8 seconds, and 9 frames to be exact. 😉
> And if so, why will it not save to my HD- telling me it may not fit in the place I want to put it?
How are you saving it? If you are rendering to an AVI file then, as Terry said, DV and HDV are 13GB per hour. You will need about 23GB of free disc space for a 1 hr 43 minute file.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
What make and model camera? It sounds like your camera records to a video format that Vegas doesn’t handle properly. Search for a free utility called GSpot and download it and open your video with it. It will tell you have codecs the video uses. If it’s DivX or XviD you will need to convert it to something Vegas can edit. Let us know what GSpot says.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
It is quite possible that your TV overscan is loosing some of the picture. Since a computer monitor doesn’t have overscan, how does it look when played back on your PC? If all of it displays correctly then it’ your TV. If it is your TV, the 16:9 media would also be loosing the same amount of picture. Is that happening?
Also make sure that your TV is set to show the full frame. Most HD TV’s have at least two zoom modes in addition to full and normal mode and you will only see the whole picture on full mode.
There is nothing wrong with using 4:3 media in a 16:9 format. You can use it as 4:3 and add an image underlay that fills the black bars with something interesting or you can crop it as we have discussed here. It’s all personal preference.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
> US does not seem to work in 64 bit.!
Yea Terry, we demoed it all last week at NAB. If you’d like to test the release candidate, send an email to ultimatesupport at the vasst web site and I’ll send you a link. I have a couple of people testing it out now. If they don’t find anything, we will release it by the end of this week.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
You may have select the render option to: Render loop region only. This would cause a small render if you have a small region looped. Check the options on the Render As… window and see if this is checked. If so, uncheck it.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
> How can I get this back to an output file of 720×480 without the top and bottom borders? If I simply crop it also removes part of the right and left side of the actual picture – is there a way to crop just the top and bottom borders off of this?
This is not possible. If the sides are cut off using the correct aspect ratio then that’s all you have to work with. Changing that would change the aspect and cause black bars somewhere else.
If you really want to do this, you could crop just the top and bottom by telling the Pan/Crop tool to ignore the aspect ratio. Just hold down the Ctrl key while you change the crop and it will adjust to any size you want.
There is no need to render out. The crop should be all you need.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
> So I set the DVD SETTINGS NOT THE TV SETTINGS? That makes sense!
Yes, you want to tell the DVD player that it’s OK to send widescreen output because the TV is widescreen.
> If I change that to WIDESCREEN, what happens when I watch a NON WIDESCREEN DVD?
The DVD player will adjust the output for you and send a 4:3 center with black bars on the left and right sides. Once it knows that the TV is widescreen, it can now send both 4:3 and 16:9 media in the correct format.
> So it sounds like you think WIDESCREEN is the best for all of my settings progects etc.?
It is the best only when you are shooting widescreen with your camera which, I believe, you said you were doing.
> When I set Vegas to WIDESCREEN initially do I still need to specify when I render and then when it goes to Architect?
Yes. This is very important. You must tell it twice, once in the project properties and once when rendering. This is because you might want to render 4:3 with letterboxing. It doesn’t know if you want widescreen output or not so you must tell it.
> and lastly, do I use the WIDESCREEN PAL OR WIDESCREEN NTSC (or whatever that other abbreviation says)
If you are in the North America or Japan, you want NTSC. South America is a mix of NTSC and PAL I think. If you are the rest of the world, (e.g., Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, etc.) you probably want PAL. (except France, Russia, and some parts of Africa which are SECAM)
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
> Maybe I have my TV settings wrong because I thought the whole reason to have a widescreen TV is to get the “MOVIE FEEL” and yet even when I watch WIDE SCREEN DVDs that I rent, there is a black bar above and below and I feel like I am LOSING view of the movie rather than gaining it through WIDE SCREEN.
Hi Audra, Lot’s of good information here and I think you hint the problem with that statement. It sounds to me like you never set your DVD player up correctly. Somewhere in the settings of your DVD player you need to tell it that you have a Widescreen TV. It sounds like it thinks you only have a standard 4:3 TV which is why everything, including Holyywood DVD’s, are not displaying correctly. The settings might be labeled 4:3 and 16:9. If so you want 16:9 (why they don’t just use the term “widescreen” I’ll never know… like the average Joe is suppose to know what 16:9 means).
Change the settings on your DVD player and your problems will be solved and you will see why we all love widescreen. 😉
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com