[Naiche Lujan]

I think that this is a player issue, because after playing the file in VLC Player and Quicktime, I realized that each player has it’s quirks and WMP probably just adds the black spacers for the “user experience” or something.

My method of testing that the video was indeed not letterboxed was to reimporting the rendered avi file back into vegas in a new project. It displayed correctly. It also displayed fine in VLC player, no letterboxing.

Thanks anyway

[Naiche Lujan]

I think that this is a player issue, because after playing the file in VLC Player and Quicktime, I realized that each player has it’s quirks and WMP probably just adds the black spacers for the “user experience” or something.

My method of testing that the video was indeed not letterboxed was to reimporting the rendered avi file back into vegas in a new project. It displayed correctly. It also displayed fine in VLC player, no letterboxing.

Thanks anyway

[Naiche Lujan]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked at Canopus. But for my situation, I think monetarily I might do better to find a used MiniDV Camcorder that has the analog capture inputs. I’m sure I can do better and since its a dv codec, it should be the same quality, right?

[Naiche Lujan]

Any suggestions on a camera that would do the trick?

I’m guessing that all DV cameras are on the same dv codec/format but is the quality going to be the same for capturing an analog signal across manufacturer’s? In other words could I get a cheapo camera that is just dedicated to digitizing the audio?
I really have no need to film anything and if I did, it would probably have to be a substantial investment, so for now thinking of a cheapish one that would accomplish this task.

I am not in the camera market so I could really use some suggestions on specific models here. Or is it something where you can’t go wrong as long as it’s dv and not mpeg2? Do I want to go with hard drive or tape?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Naiche Lujan]

Unfortunately, no camera. But a good idea, thanks.

[Naiche Lujan]

Look, I’m not expert, but maybe someone who is can clarify what I’m bringing up here. I had a similar problem once, although I think the problem arose when I began editing so I noticed it wasn’t the import that was the issue.

Anyway, what was going on was that Vegas had some sort of default transition setting that it was applying when stitching the scenes together. So that it looked like it was clipping some of the frames.

I wish I could explain this in more detail, but if it’s happening right at the seams and nowhere else, this would be my suspicion. Try zooming in really close to the frame level and see if the volume envelope drops off in a logrithmic fashion. And then rises and the beginning of the new file. Does the clip fad eout or sharply disappear and reappear(of course if you’re playing in real-time it will look fast, but if you advance frame by frame observe what happens)

Also make sure the you have snapping enabled so that the clips are butting right up against each other.

I import DVD files all the time and it works flawlessly. Although I’m still on Vegas 7. Could be that things changed in 8.

Hope this helps.

[Naiche Lujan]

Sorry for not having a better suggestion but have you eliminated playback as the issue? ie: tried other players, burned another copy, etc.

Wish I could help more…

[Naiche Lujan]

Alright, I guess I’m having a monologue here, but I did forget to mention one other small(not so small, forgive the pun) detail which is that my PC is low-profile, meaning it does not accept full-height PCIe cards.

I do have a lesser PC(older) that has a 2.4Ghz HT processor and 512MB RAM. Of course I could get more RAM. Do you think this would work fine?

Or are there other external box solutions that connect via FireWire or eSata cable.

[Naiche Lujan]

Alright, so from reading more, it seems that I’m going to need an AJA or Blackmagic card. Does that sound right?

Are there other ways to go?

[Naiche Lujan]

Hey Ty,

I really appreciate the help. This is truly an invaluable resource here. I hope one day I will be able to contribute more. I try to give help on some other forums but with audio I am a beginner.

To give you some more information on this project, the recordings will be single person voice recordings for radio. We have been using a shotgun mic(sorry don’t have the model number right now) and that has been working pretty good, but then we found this old RE20 that was broken and from what I read this mic was pretty good for this type of application. So we paid the $60 to fix it rather than invest in a new mic. I do understand that this mic is not as sensitive as some others, but I baffled that I was able to get audio the first time I tried.

I don’t know what other information to provide. The first time I recorded with it and was successful I just used an XLR to 1/8″ mini cable. I plugged straight into the laptop’s mic port , opened the program Audacity and hit record. If I did anything different the second day, I have no idea what it was but I got no audio.

Like I said we have been using a shotgun mic and going straight into an M-Audio digital recorder and it works fine. However when we tried to use the RE20 going into the M-Audio(this time with an XLR to 1/4″ cable) we got no signal or if there was a signal it was undetectable.

The second time I was able to successfully get a decent signal was when I connected to the Sony Tape Deck with an XLR to XLR cable.

Sorry I don’t know what else to report, maybe I’m doing something I don’t realize.

Maybe you could tell me if it is worth pursuing with this mic. Or suggest a standalone digital recorder that would have a strong enough pre-amp, or what settings I need to consider when recording into software.

Thanks again,
Naiche