[John Rofrano]

You didn’t say what template you are using for rendering. It sounds like you might be using one that is not 16:9. There is no default template for DVD Widescreen that has audio so you’ll have to make your own or tweak an existing template. I would start with the DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream template and enable the audio options that you want.

Another thing to consider is your target player. If the player you want to view it on doesn’t understand Pixel Aspect Ratios (i.e., it assumes that all video has a PAR of 1.0) then using a rendering template with a PAR of anything but 1.0 will not play back correctly. For this to work you can’t simply change the PAR, you have to change the video dimensions to conform to a PAR of 1.0.

For example, NTSC DV Widescreen has a PAR of 1.2121 with dimensions of 720×480. In order to make the PAR 1.0000 you need to multiple 720 x 1.2121 which is 872.712 or 873 rounded. So rendering 873×480 with a PAR of 1.000 will give you the 16:9 you are looking for. Note: this does not have to be done if your target output device is a DVD/TV. It’s only some PC/web players that ignore PAR and display incorrectly.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

DVD Architect (and DVD authoring software in general) can only place chapter points at I-Frames in the MPEG GOP. DVD Architect will show you an exclamation point in the marker if it is not on an I-Frame to give you an opportunity to fix it. If you do not fix it, it will shift it to the closest I-Frame which may or may not be where you want it. This is just how MPEG and chapter points work. It is something that should always be checked in DVD Architect if placement of your chapter points are critical.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

It sounds like you have your Field Order set incorrectly somewhere along the line. HD formats like AVCHD use Upper Field First and DV formats use Lower Field First. If you set your project to HD and render to DV, Vegas will correctly compensate for the difference in field order. If however, you change the field order on the project or one of your clips, then this would cause the problem you are seeing. The lines are from interlacing incorrectly.

I would create a DV Widescreen project and drop a single AVCHD file. Go to the event properties and make sure it correctly shows Upper Field for the AVCHD media. Then render to DV Widescreen. The resulting video should not show the interlacing artifacts during motion. Make sure you view the footage on a TV which is an interlaced device. Watching them on a PC with a player that is not deinterlacing will show the interlace lines regardless of what you do.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

It’s not clear if you are talking about the capture files or the final output.

By default, the Camtasia capture program use it’s own CAMREC format. That’s easy to change. Open the Camtasia Recorder program. Go to Tools | Options | General and change the File options to Save as AVI. Camtasia will now record to AVI files using the TechSmith codec. These files can easily be edited in Vegas.

If you are talking about the final output there are options to output to Quicktime MOV, Windows WMV, DV AVI and a host of other common formats along with Flash which is primarily a delivery format for the web (i.e., not to be edited)

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

There is no way to place a lock at the track level. You can only lock an event. Ultimate S Pro and Excalibur can automate this process for you by locking all of the events on a track with one click. Otherwise you have to do this manually, Right-click | Properties | Lock one event at a time.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

Actually, that just masks the real problem which is that you recorded a mono source as stereo. What you should do next time is when you record, after you arming the track, go to the record input selector and select Left (Mono) and record as mono. This is the correct way to record mono signals and won’t require any combining of channels.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

Spectacular! That cut very nicely together. Glad I could help.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

I agree with Steve, use Nero to convert these files to something editable. In general, video from still image cameras are non-standard and difficult to work with. You might consider buying a camcorder if you are serious about editing videos.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

From your description it is hard to imagine what you are trying to do. If you want to capture the live feed from a web site you will need PC screen capture software like Camtasia. This will make a movie of your PC screen that you can then work with in Vegas 7.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

I could be wrong and for your sake I hope I am… but I don’t think you can capture PAL footage with an NTSC camera. It sounds like you have already tried and it failed? What happened? I assume Vegas saw the camera. If not, are you sure you had the FX1 set to DV output and not HDV for capture?

~jr

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