[Mark Wilson]

No, it won’t “double” the “effect.” There is some variation, however, in what you monitor “expects” to see. ie, Does it expect white at 16 or zero? In my experience, usually computer monitors expect to see RGB 0-255 and TV’s expect to see YUV 16-235. That has changed a lot now that there are computer monitors that are designed for video editing and TV’s that are designed to be used as computer monitors. So you have to check.

So, back to TESTING. Set your Vegas scopes to 16-235 and throw a NTSC test pattern on the timeline. The pluge will be wrong in the Vegas preview window (expected) but (hopefully) right on your secondary monitor when you select the RGB output checkbox in preview device preferences. (Google NTSC pluge if you aren’t sure what it should look like.)

I know, there are too many switches in this chain, and of course the monitor and Graphics card “talk” to each other on driver install – so generally you can leave these alone.

[Mark Wilson]

1) Yes, performance issue. You may not be concerned now, but you probably will be ☺

2) No. Not processing anything. Just DEFINING what is the white point and black point. Doesn’t change the underlying data in any way.

Sounds likes you are undertaking this journey for the first time, so be sure to TEST to make sure your process is working the way you want before you commit huge amount of time grading your footage.

[Mark Wilson]

There is lot in this question. To keep it a little shorter and simpler:

1) If you are working in rec 709, then by definition you should be working 16-235 ( or 10 bit equiv.)

2) As you have intimated, if you start changing settings all over the place you are going to be at risk of making a big mess. Just leave everything a 16-235, then test your pipeline. Don’t change colours, gamma, etc, at the graphics card level. You may want to consider using a Blackmagic decklink card to avoid the possibility of someone changing a setting on you graphics card that messes you up.

3) Video setup is different than photo (for print) setup. You calibrate the monitor to Rec 709 ( or just leave it alone); you DO NOT make a colour profile through the windows GUI as this is unreliable.

4) Working in 32 bit is painful. At least edit in 8 bit then switch to 32 bit for colour work/ final render.

[Mark Wilson]

I believe Vegas 16 added back support for Decklink cards in addition to Intensity. Download a trial to confirm.

[Mark Wilson]

Hi Mathew,

1) If you do “post your gripes” over on the Vegas creative forum, please keep in mind that it is a peer support forum just like this one, so asking questions politely is better than finger pointing (you can talk to Magix customer service for that.)

2) I have tested Vegas 16 with 32″ and 40″ UHD monitors and the UI is totally crisp and readable. There must be something different (wrong?) with your setup.

3) Bugs: Yup, there are a few more than there should be. This seems to be the modus operandi for Magix – release, patch, patch, patch = OK. I plan to wait for at least one more patch (maybe 2) before moving over.

[Mark Wilson]

Most welcome.
Personally, I will stick with the commercial unlimited versions – that’s “royalty free” in my view and the price is mostly OK.

I also have lots of Sony libraries and, no, and cannot imagine they can alter the contract terms after the fact.

FYI, producerloops has tons of libraries and they are also royalty free.

[Mark Wilson]

I noticed that the Magix “commercial – unlimited” price is the same as the old Sony price. So it looks like they have simply added a cheaper alternative for those that don’t need the rights.

[Mark Wilson]

You don’t. You just set a loop region (double click in timeline area) and render that.

[Mark Wilson]

Unfortunately, RAM previews do not always playback smoothly. Try a SHIFT-M selective pre-render in those cases.

[Mark Wilson]

AVI is the “container”, SonyYUV (in your example above) is the CODEC. SonyYUV and uncompressed are HUGE files (unworkable on most systems) but you can use other CODECS like Cineform, Magic YUV, etc, that are smaller (but not as small as mp4). These may not be installed on your system.

Alternatively, render to XAVC-intra. It’s a good compromise of compression and minimally lossy.

If you research “intermediate on this forum and the official Vegas forum you will get LOTS more information and opinion.

PS – Yes, 1080 to 720 would be downsampling / downrezzing, etc. Only seems to be an issue for me when going from UHD to HD; in some rare cases.