Matt Crowley
Forum Replies Created
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A dissolve or crossfade between two video clips (called Events on the Vegas timeline) is very simple. Just place 2 events on the same track, and drag the 2nd event backwards until it overlaps the first. Vegas automatically creates a crossfade where the events overlap. The default fade type will give you a smooth crossfade.
It’s the same for audio events. By default, the audio associated with a video event will also crossfade into the audio from the other event.
You can change the video fade to other transition types very easily. Just go to the Transitions tab in the docking panel (normally to the left of the preview window) and you’ll see a browser with all the transitions. Just drag the one you want onto the crossfade in the timeline and you’ll get a dialog box that lets you tweak the transition.
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You CAN burn a DVD/Blu-Ray disc directly from Movie Studio, but you lose the flexibility you get with DVD Architect.
Instead of using the Make Movie wizard (or rendering manually), just choose Burn Disc on the Tools menu. There you’ll get a few options for formats and burning, but it’s a bit simpler than using DVD Architect.
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This might be a bit late to be helpful this time…
You can use the authored DVD as the source for a new project which you can then render to whatever format you want.
Just import the DVD video into Vegas (Project>Import DVD Camcorder Disc) to get the video and audio on the timeline, then you can render normally to whatever format you need.
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If you don’t mind trying another media player, then check out MPC-HC (Media Player Classic Home Cinema). It can automatically pick up the AC3 audio file if you play the associated MPEG2 file. It’s a bit of a techie hacker’s program, but I like it for the lean interface and format support.
There are probably other media players that can do this but I haven’t tried any. VLC might also do this.
To guarantee playback on all media players, you’ll have to rerender as an MPEG2 video with included audio, or mux the files somehow.
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Did you apply the color effects to the TRACK or to the individual EVENTS? If you applied track-level effects, then you need to duplicate these effects on the second track too.
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MPEG2 HDV (1440×1080) is fairly smooth to decode and edit even on medium spec machines. AVCHD from camcorders is OK but needs a decent machine for good editing/previewing.
For standard definition, just use DV AVI (the same format as DV cameras use, but gives fairly big files) or MPEG2 at 8Mbps or so (same as DVDs use). Both of these are easy to edit even on modest PCs.
Basically, avoid highly compressed formats like MPEG4/AVC, AVCHD, WMV, DIVX.
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You should normally set your project settings to match the source video (especially if you plan to render to multiple formats), or the desired output format (such as NTSC DV widescreen) if you have different input formats.
Try setting your project to match the source video. In the Project Properties panel, there’s a little film-strip icon called Match Media Settings. Click that and pick one of your source video files to use its format as the project format. You *may* get some slight change of cropping or positioning of events because you’re changing the frame size of the project.
Then try a re-render of a short segment to test. You shouldn’t have to touch interlace settings if you use the render presets when rendering to MPEG2 for DVD.
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There are several batch transcoding utilities including Super (search for eRightSoft) and MediaCoder. Both are a bit techy and you need to understand a lot of settings. I haven’t used either utility for ages so can’t really advise on settings. There are sure to be other apps too.
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You cannot zoom out to below 12.5% of original size (8x reduction) in pan/crop. If you need to zoom out more than that, you have to use track motion instead, which lets you zoom out until the original frame is 0x0 pixels.
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If at all possible, use a different format for your source recordings. WMV and DIVX do not edit well in Vegas (and probably other editors too) as they’re heavily compressed formats and are only designed for playback.
If you have to capture in WMV, then you might need to transcode to another format that’s easier to edit. Try HDV (MPEG2 HD) for starters.
Does your output video need to be HD? If not (like if you’re rendering for a DVD) then you could try recording (or converting your recordings) to standard def rather than trying to edit HD.
What are your laptop and PC specs? CPU type/speed, RAM etc? You need a fairly beefy modern PC to edit HD video easily.