[Marc Mcdaniel]

I know this is a few months old, but could you please tell me how you undocked the preview window? I have Vegas Pro 15 as well, and since I have my 3 monitors set up through surround, I basically have one big screen, 5760×1080. When I click on “Video Preview for External Monitor”, the preview goes full screen in the center monitor. Since Windows, and Vegas, think I have one big monitor of 5760×1080, the external monitor button obviously will not work. So I need to be able to undock it and move it to another monitor. I know I can remove the surround so that I have 3 independent monitors, but I really like the surround mode better. Can you help?

Thanks, Marc.

[Marc Mcdaniel]

Mike,
you have an excellent tutorial on DVDA, which I’ve read before. I wanted to reference it again but for the life of me, I can’t find it now. Could you possible send me a link if you know the one I am talking about?

Thanks, Marc.

[Marc Mcdaniel]

Gotcha. Thanks Mike. I had one other strange thing happen last night though. My video is 2 hours long and I decided to try burning it to a Memorex (I know, crappy brand) double layer DVD I had laying around (not the data burn but the regular burn) just to see if there was a difference in quality compared to a regular single layer (the video itself it approx. 8.1 GB). Can’t say I saw much difference in quality with this double layer, but the weird thing is that when I played it back on the TV (46″ plasma), it looked stretched somewhat horizontally, making the characters appear wider, or “squished down” some compared to normal. I first thought that maybe it was a setting on the TV itself, but quickly remembered that previous burns of the video (menu-less, single-layer versions) always displayed properly (16:9). I went back into DVDA and checked the aspect ratio and confirmed 16:9. Any idea why the menu driven 16:9 double layer version would appear extra wide?

Marc.

[Marc Mcdaniel]

Mike, I wanna say, I don’t doubt your methods one iota, but I was just curious as to what the benefits are to burning the video as a data file instead of a regular DVD video file. Just finished burning as you described here including burning it as a data file and it turned out real good. The only difference I noticed was when I inserted it into my PC, it didn’t begin playing automatically in Windows Media Player like it does with the regular DVD burning method. I had to double-click on the vob file to have it start. I haven’t tried it in a DVD player yet, but I assume it will start up automatically.

Thanks, Marc.

[Marc Mcdaniel]

John, thanks so much for the detailed instructions. You know, it was like I had a mental block regarding just how masking worked. But after your detailed explanations, what a difference. It’s like the light finally came on with how the mask function actually worked. Wasn’t able to get back to the project until a couple of days ago, but started flying through it and masking that irritating little floating around light (it’s a little time consuming because I have about 20 minutes of frame by frame masking to do, but what a difference it’s made so far in how it looks in the preview.
Thanks again and God bless.

Marc.

[Marc Mcdaniel]

John, thanks so much go getting back to me. However, as I’m a total noob at masking, are you saying that I should make a selection “next to” the light, but big enough to surround it? I can do that, but how would I go about using that selection of black to block out the light in the underlying track? Please forgive me for being so ignorant of how masking works but I am really at a total loss on exactly how this is done. Am I to somehow move this selection of black over on top of the light (on the copied track above the original) in order to cover the light on the original track below? If so, I’m not sure of which keystroke I use to select all anchors and move the selection around at one time (all together). Also, I’m not sure what you mean by “Positive” mask (as opposed to a “negative” mask?). Also, you mention “Position in Pan/Crop to move the video to the left or right so that video without the light is playing through the mask.” Are you saying that I am to change the X and Y coordinates to line up the selection over the light? So sorry for my ineptitude at this obviously simple manipulation.

Thanks, Marc.

[Marc Mcdaniel]

Mike, first I wanted to say a BIG thank you for your advice. I got deeply involved in some other business projects and was unable to do anymore on the wedding video until this weekend. I followed your advice on the settings and it turned out brilliantly. Sorry about such a delayed thank you for allowing me to utilize your intelligence. Thanks again, Marc.