[Mike Kujbida]

[john culleton] “why does vegas allow me to drag the end of a clip infinitely?”

There are times (such as text events or stills) that I want to be able to drag the event out for longer than the default time without having to open a box and enter the new time – after I’ve figured out how long that is, of course 🙁
At times like this, I definitely appreciate the way Veags does things.

[Mike Kujbida]

“why does vegas allow me to drag the end of a clip infinitely?”

You may not like it but that’s the way Vegas does it.

Look closely at the clip and, if it’s repeating, you’ll see a tiny notch (looks like a V) somewhere along the top of it. This is the repeatig point. To go back to the original length, drag the end of the clip backwards (or the beginning forward, as the case may be) until the V goes away.

You can also just trim it by using the S (Split) key at the desired point and deleting the unwanted segment.

[Mike Kujbida]

Pretty much any graphic app such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. will allow you to colour text (and apply effects) on a letter by letter or word by word basis.

[Mike Kujbida]

The way I do it is to copy the text event, paste it on a higher track, change the colour and delete the words I don’t need.
You’ll have to play with the spacing to get it to match the lower track but this isn’t hard to do.

[Mike Kujbida]

Vegas automatically scales anything (up or down) added to a project to match the project settings. If you were to add a PAL miniDV clip to the timeline, it would scale your 720 x 576 clip to match the HDV 1080-50i format template. The same thing happens with stills, even if they’re larger than the project properties.

…HDV 1080-50i format template – which to my understanding is 1440X1080 – IE 4:3 …

It really is 16:9. Take a look at the clip properties and, beside Pixel aspect, it says 1.3333 (HDV 1080). This is the “magic” key. The 1440 x 1080 image is stretched to be 1920 x 1080 (16:9) when displayed.

I’m really not sure why you’re having problems. I downloaded an HDV 1080-50i clip, dropped it on a timeline and set the project properties to match. I extracted a still from this video clip and stuck it ion the middle. I then rendered it out, just like you did, to a HD 720P Windows Media File and everything looked the way it was supposed to be. No stretched images anywhere on the timeline or in the rendered video.

[Mike Kujbida]

“I guess you mean “match output aspect””

Sorry about that. Yes I did mean that.

One thought just occurred to me and that is how are you watching the video? If it’s with Media Player, it’s a known fact that it can sometimes have issues properly displaying widescreen/16:9 video.

[Mike Kujbida]

Try doing a Match Aspect Ratio on the stills and see if it helps.

[Mike Kujbida]

Considering the incompatibility of DVD Architect 4 and Pioneer burners.

That’s the first time I’ve heard of this problem.

…since Sony now makes DVD Architect?
Before it was Sony, it was Sonic Foundry so it’s always been made by the same company.

What burner is recommended for maximum compatibility…

I put a Plextor dual-layer burner in my new system. I’m not at home right now or I’d give you the model number.

[Mike Kujbida]

Sorry but no – and I can’t think of any reason I’d do it either.

The only workaround is to render out a low res version of each clip using the exact same file names as in the original.
Do your “off-line” edit with these.
When you’re ready to do the “on-line” version, delete the low res files and then load the veg file. Vegas will say something like “can’t find filexxx.avi – what do you want to do?” Point it to the folder where the original files are and it should automatically pick up from there, replacing all the files.

[Mike Kujbida]

To do a dissolve, you have to drag the beginning of clip 2 backwards over top of the end of clip 1. A symbol resembling an X will appear indicating a dissolve. The more you drag it backwards, the longer the dissolve will be.
Vegas Training Videos is a link to excerpts from Sony’s Seminar series. It’s for Vegas 5 and DVD Architect 2 but it’ll help to get you up and running on the basics.
Be sure to check out Edward Troxel’s excellent newsletters as well.