[John Rofrano]

> When I drag one clip into the next to make an overlap, it is not possible to set it to anything between .29 and 1.00 seconds.

The readout depends on your Timeline Ruler settings. By default it is set for SMPTE Non-Drop Frame which is counting by frames not sub-seconds. If you are using a format that is 30 frames per second, the next frame after .29 is 1.00 so you cannot set it to anything in between because 30 frames equals 1 second.

If you really want the readout in second, change your ruler to Time or Seconds and you will see a reading to three decimal places like 1.000.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> Question 1: My camera will output 1920×1080 but in the project properties dialogue this is not an option, only 1440×1080. Why is this?

Try the HD 1080-60i (1920×1080, 29.970 fps) template (third up from the bottom).

> Question 2: If I want to burn a Blu Ray DVD which format do I use? I assume I will have to do the actual burning with a different DVD authoring software…

As Adam said, when you purchase Vegas Pro 8.0 is comes with DVD Architect Pro 4.5 which will be upgraded to 5.0 shortly with Blu-ray authoring for free.

> Question 3: …I would like to make DVD’s that are compatible with other peoples players. Is the quality still good at this level?

The quality will be higher than if you used a standard definition camera. This is because you are starting out with much higher quality source. Everything I shoot is in HD and I only deliver DVD’s and people always comment on how great the quality is.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> Anyway..does boris crashes vegas occasionally?

I have not experienced any more or less crashes while using Boris with Vegas Pro 8.0. Most of my crashes with Vegas Pro 8 have been while I was using the Vegas tools (Pan/Crop, keyframing, etc.) but that’s just be because I use those tools more. My setup for Vegas Pro 8 has been fairly stable.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

I realize you got this working already but for next time… since black has no chroma you could do a Luma Key instead.

1. Duplicate the clip on a new track above the original and make the original track a child composite of the upper one.
2. Then add the Sony Mask Generator to the upper track and adjust the High In down until you have a black & white mask of just the computer screen area.
3. Finally change the Compositing Mode of the upper track to Multiply (Mask).

Now anything you place below the original track will show through the computer screen.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

For me it’s a must have plug-in. I bought RED which is Boris FX + Boris Graffiti + more and I use it on almost every project. If course RED has titles (from Graffiti) that FX doesn’t have so the titles get a lot of use. I especially like the credit roll which you won’t get with Boris FX alone. If you can, get the Boris FX + Boris Graffiti bundle which is cheaper than buying each separately.

Boris FX has some excellent filters. The Chroma Key is outstanding! I use to use Serious Magic Ultra before Adobe killed it and I find that the Boris FX Keys & Matte filters are even better. In addition to a great chroma key that works well even on unevenly lit backgrounds, it has the ability to wrap the background as light around the keyed subject which really sells the key. (i.e., light from the new background falls on the subjects shoulders as if they were really in the scene) My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw this and I haven’t used Ultra since. Also the fact that it plugs right into Vegas makes it my go-to chroma keyer now.

The Motion Tracker is worth the price all alone. If you’ve ever spent hours keyframing motion in Vegas to cover an area with a blur or other correction you are going love the motion tracker. Just pick a good point to track and let it calculate the motion, then add anything you want to that path and it moves like it was originally in the video. Use this with the particles for some great effects that move with the camera. The motion stabilization is also great as is the corner pin tracker for replacing parts of video in motion. Like I said, it’s a “must-have” plug-in for me. Just lots of useful stuff.

The generators for rain and snow are also great. I used the snow for an introduction on a Christmas concert I did last year and it really sold the feel. The particle system is also great for adding smoke or other particle effects. Boris FX also has 3D motion that is very easy to use because you can move the 3D layers using direct manipulation in the preview window.

Here is the big thing people don’t think to consider: Even for the things you can do in Vegas, it’s sometimes better to do them in Boris FX because you can save them as a single preset and reuse them. In Vegas you can’t do this! Oh you can save one keyframe as a preset, but what if you have several keyframes? There is no way to save them easily in Vegas. With Boris FX everything you do no matter how complex can be saved as a single preset and then applied again with one click. This is another feature that is worth the price alone in productivity.

As for the integration with Vegas, it’s not as good as it could be but that’s not Boris’ fault. The Vegas API is extremely limited and only gives the plug-in one frame to work with during setup (basically a snapshot) so you have to load the clip into Boris FX to do any work that involves motion. But there are workarounds and the final result is well worth it.

As you can tell, I really like Boris FX/RED and use it a lot. I give Boris FX “two thumbs up”! Integration with Vegas gets only one thumb. It’s way better than using a stand-alone tool but not as good as it could be. Hopefully some day Sony will enhance their API and fix this for all Vegas plug-ins.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> On a machine that has a demo version of the codec installed, it works fine in pI3.

Alan,

I believe this is the key. Sony Vegas ships with a special version of the Cineform codec that can be decoded by any application but can only be encoded by Sony Vegas as a host. If pI is making sure it can encode with this codec that would cause a failure.

If you are testing with a demo of Cineform then that would work because the demo both encodes and decodes. So it may be the special licensing arrangement between Cineform and Sony that causes this strange behavior.

I forgot I have the full version of Cineform Connect HD on my system in addition to Sony Vegas so this is probably why it works for me. I will say that one of the reasons I have Cineform Connect HD is because it provides an excellent codec for use in stand-alone post processing applications like pI. Well worth the investment for someone who is working in HD.

Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

OK on the not needed anymore.

I do have the full version of Cineform Connect HD on my PC so it is possible that this does not work with the Cineform codec from Sony Vegas alone. You may have to purchase one of the Cineform products to get the fully licensed codec.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> So has no one done anything with HDV projects?

I have but I use the CineForm codec for my HDV files. Perhaps because you are frameserving, PI isn’t getting enough information about the format. 1440×1080 has a pixel aspect of 1.333. Perhaps PI is thinking it is 1.0 by mistake? Try telling PI that the footage is 1920×1080 (which is the same as 1440×1080 @ 1.333 PAR) but the PAR is 1.0. In other words, use the 1920×1080 project settings and see if that fixes the aspect problem.

Alternately, render the footage in Sony Vegas using the HDV Intermediary templates and it will use the CineForm codec. When you load these as the background into a PI3 1440×1080 project it will correctly maintain the right aspect (at least it does for me).

~jr

https://www.vasst.com/

https://www.johnrofrano.com/

[John Rofrano]

M2T stands for MPEG-2 Transport Stream and it is a container for several codecs. I believe what Jeremy is suggesting is that you re-encode the AVCHD as HDV because AVCHD compression is too hard for PC’s to decode (not that HDV is that much lighter weight but HD in general is a challenge to decode so every little bit helps).

You are correct that any conversion can incur quality loss but HDV is as good or better quality than AVCHD so the loss will be minimal. The filesize will be larger because HDV uses less compression. You are trading filesize for ease of decoding and smoother playback.

~jr

https://www.vasst.com/

https://www.johnrofrano.com/

[John Rofrano]

Sometimes the timeline collapses to the bottom of the window. Hover your mouse over the bottom edge of the window and you should see the double-arrow cursor which indicates you can click and drag UP to stretch the timeline back into view.

~jr

https://www.vasst.com/

https://www.johnrofrano.com/