[Reg Gothard]

Just a word of caution about spell-checkers in general – they’re not fool-proof, and really don’t catch some of the more common spelling mistakes (like “their” where “they’re” is required and vice versa, or “it’s” vs. “its”). Grammar checkers will highlight some of these types of errors, but once again, not all.
Here’s a poem I was sent many years ago. It still spell-checks perfectly today (although US spellings will pick up “chequer”). I have no idea who wrote it, so cannot provide credit…

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

[Reg Gothard]

Thanks for all the tips and advice Jay. I’m actually just finished day two of four of the next job there, but I’ll chat with the tech to see if she can do any mods. Unlikely for day three (it’s almost midnight now, and it all starts again in 8 hours…) but maybe I can smooth-talk her into making some changes after the session ends tomorrow (at 10pm!)
I’m going to try colour correction in post – it’d just be nice to get the colours right in the first place… (time = money yadda yadda).
Once again, thanks for the advice.

[Reg Gothard]

I think what you’re referring to is enabled via the “Options | Enable snapping” item in the menu bar. Once snapping is enabled, you then have further options as to what you want to snap to.
THe shortcut for “enable snapping” is F8, but use the longhand way first just so you see the options you’re given.
Hope this helps.

[Reg Gothard]

(I’m not yet totally confident in my ability to offer solutions in Vegas, but I believe the following is technically correct, although there’s possibly an even easier way to do what you’re asking).

If the event contains an entire clip:
Right click the event in the timeline, select properties, set playback rate to 0.5, click OK
Then grab the right hand end of the clip (cursor changes to rectangle with two-headed horizontal arrow) and drag it right. There will be a notch in the top edge of the clip showing the end – when you see that notch, drag the right hand edge back to it.
(ENDIF)

If the event contains part of a clip:
…If the event’s contents were NOT marked as a region in the source clip
……Double click the event to select that part of the timeline, then right click the event and open in the trimmer.
……Delete the event from the timeline (make sure auto-ripple is OFF)
……Mark the selected portion as a region (shortcut key “R”) – naming is optional, but useful.
……Put it back in the timeline
…(ENDIF)
…Ensure you have “View | Event Media Markers | Show Markers” and “View | Event Media Markers | Show Marker Labels” turned on.
…Right click the event in the timeline, select properties, set playback rate to 0.5, click OK
…Then grab the right hand end of the clip and drag it right. When you reach the total run time of the marked footage, you will see a very thin green vertical bar in the event. When you see that, drag the edge back to it.
(EndIF)
As an alternative to marking the partial clip as a region, you could use the trimmer to create a subclip from it and put that back in the timeline, and it will behave like an entire clip as described above.

[Reg Gothard]

Dropped frames during capture are not “normal”. In seven years, I’ve only experienced dropped frames once and that was just recently when I tried capturing to a new 500GB HDD (still haven’t fixed that problem yet!) I’ve never had a camera stop talking to a computer part way through a capture…

Initial thought – is the external HDD connected via Firewire? I’ve never used them myself but it’s possible that your firewire card can’t handle a camera AND a hard drive at the same time (even though it’s got more than one port…)

I’d start doing a bit of troubleshooting.
a) Does the external hard drive need defragmenting?
b) If you have two or more internal hard drives, try capturing to an internal hard drive (not your C: drive)
c) If the computer is connected to a network
i) disable the network
ii) shut down any email programs that might be checking servers for email periodically
iii) disable any “phone home” options in other software packages (e.g. Norton anti-virus phones home every 15 minutes(I think) by default to check for s/w and virus signature file updates.)
iv) disable your anti-virus auto-protect options temporarily (remember to re-enable before you reconnect to network!)

The solution to your problem might not be in the above suggestions, but they’re definitely something worth trying (if you haven’t already) until people with experience using your particular set-up chime in… And I’d defintely try all of the above before suspecting a sick firewire card or something.

[Reg Gothard]

I live this problem and can echo the “manual iris” advice (although I rarely use manual focus).

I just wanted to add though that I shoot with VX2000 and VX2100, and their exposure setting is on a “clicky wheel” – which makes the setting changes somewhat visible.
I read somewhere that the PD150/170’s exposure setting is “continuously variable”, so I’m guessing that setting changes are less noticeable. So if that’s true, and you’re planning to rent, consider the PD150/170 over the VX2000/2100.

Can anyone with experience on both the VX and PD versions comment?

[Reg Gothard]

I send DVDs to the UK quite frequently from Canada (i.e. NTSC to PAL), and the recipients can play them fine. I burn them as Region 0 (i.e. all regions) which is what DVD burners are set as by default.
My understanding is that “most” PAL DVD players in Europe can read NTSC DVDs. So I’m guessing that PAL DVD players in Ukraine will also play NTSC DVDs.

I have no experience with SECAM, so can’t comment on that part of the issue.

If your Ukranian friend has access to editing facilities, you could send the skit as AVIs or MOVs so she can edit them into something she can watch. (You’d need to break the project into two portions to get it on single layer, single sided DVD.)

[Reg Gothard]

Still a relative newbie myself with Vegas (but learning fast!)
However…
I’ve read countless threads on several forums that bemoan Vegas render times, so I’ve learned to expect longer renders than from my previous NLE. If you’ve loaded your project up with lots of TX and FX goodies, then your render times may be longer too.
768MB of RAM is probably OK – I’m running with 1GB quite happily.
Check some of DSE’s or Edward Troxel’s posts on this and other forums for tuning tips for your machine. HDD config; CPU; multi-threading etc are all things to consider.

That said, I’ve fallen foul of a simple error a few times. I’ve inadvertantly moved the “level” slider for one or more video tracks and significantly increased render times. I know how I move the slider – I check something in the track list (e.g., Mute or Solo) then forget to hit Tab before using left arrow to space back a frame in the timeline. Result – “Level” is now 1% lower than 100 for each time I hit left arrow and render takes longer. You might want to check to see if you’ve done a similar thing.

Sorry if these ideas are basic – but hope they help a little.

[Reg Gothard]

…and this probably answers my questions adequately.
Thanks for your input each…

[Reg Gothard]

re – memory effect…
Sorry – called it the wrong thing.
It’s called “passivation” – but has pretty much the same end result as the “memory effect” – the battery shows full charge, then after 5 – 10 minutes it’s flat-flat-flat (or dead-dead-dead). Currently, three of my nine batteries are exhibiting this behaviour.
Here’s a link to one of a number of web pages that describes the feature/effect/behaviour:
https://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/battery/lithium.html
There are others – search for “infolithium passivation”
Bottom line – Sony infolithium batteries will let you down if you’re not on your guard.
For other people whose batteries are misbehaving – the above link also describes how to remove the passivation layer.