[Rick Mac]

Brian,

I looked up your camcorder and it creates standard definition
mpeg-2 files just like a standard DVD. Generally speaking
mpeg-2 is a highly compressed format (that is code for) it needs a really fast computer to decompress the video in realtime. I’m not sure just how fast your computer needs to be to handle your video smoothly. It is certainly more processor intensive to edit than DV. Perhaps someone else can jump in here that edits natively mpeg from their camera, and shed some light on editing this type of file.

That being said, you can always transcode (convert) your mpeg-2 files to DV files before editing. Just about any current computer can smoothly edit DV-files. Once transcoded edit the DV files istead of the mpeg-2’s.

You should have a second hard drive in your computer that your video files live in. Trying to play and capture video to your C: drive is a bad idea. Performance will suffer.

You can use the batch render script in Vegas to transcode your mpeg-2 files to DV. If you think you want to give that a try let me know in your next post and I will explain further.

The down side to transcode is that it will create a new video file besides your original, so that will require more drive space. The other drawback is that it will take a bit of time for Vegas to transcode your mpeg-2 to DV before you can edit.

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

Don’t mean to sound like I’m harping but the vob is a
container for some type of file using some type of codec.
I’m guessing that your camera is a high def camera.

Is it HDV, or AVCHD.
If the later is requires a very fast computer.

What is the model of your camcorder and what are
your computer specs.

Have a good day.

Later…Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

Here is another one to check. Forgive me if it sounds
to basic.
You should be putting your video media on a seperate drive than your operating system. Your preview settings should be
“Preview Auto”.

By the way what type of file is this? HDV MPEG? What Codec?

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

[Brian Bilgen] “under the assumption i could drop discs in and edit”

I hope that you transfered the footage from your camcoder
to your hard drive. If you are trying to edit directly from your DVD that would explain the lag. Your DVD cannot move the data fast enough..

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

You can tell Vegas to automatically set the project settings to match your media.
Go to file menu, choose properties. On the video tab click the
“match media settings” button. Browse to a media file that you are editing with select it and click the open button.
The frame size, frame rate, pixel aspect ratio, and field order for the project will now match your media.

Assuming that your media is 16X9 it will now appear in Vegas as 16X9.

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

I would check to make sure that my project setting match my source footage. If source is progressive set up your project settings to match.

[robgb] “The media is HDV green screen composited footage, rendered as uncompressed avi.”

Something might have gone wrong here. Pull up the comp project and see how it looks in preiview full/best.
You may need to fix some things at this stage.

Lastly, it has been my experience that the picture can look great in preview but soft in best when I am rescaleing. In other words lets say I have rendered a segment at 720X486 and then pull that clip into a project that is set for 720X480.
This rescaleing can be a problem. I have found that if you go to track motion or pan/crop and adjust the clip up or down one “up arrow” the footage is now sharp again. Basically what I beleive is happening here is that rescaling can cause your field order to get wacked. Moving the clip one field in either direction can pull it back in. I know this applies to interlaced video I’m not sure if it would apply to a progressive clip. You could give this a try.

You could also play with your project settings to see if you
hit on a setting that works better.

Beyond that I have no other ideas as I’m working in SD, not HDV.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

Yes I have.
First, did you select Best/Full?
Can you tell me more about your project.
What type of video are you editing DV, HDV?
Your Media’s Properties?
Your Project Settings?
Did you do any resizing of your clips, Pan/Crop, Track Motion?
Does everything get blurry or just one one element
such as Graphics?
Feel free to share any other info you feel
is important about your project.

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

Assuming that you are in the US (NTSC Video) and that your
project is SD not HD, and you are resizing stills outside of Vegas, such as with Photoshop, here is the recommended size.

If you are not zooming in with Pan/Crop: 655X480
If you will be zooming in tighter with Pan/Crop 1310X960

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

Martin,

Most likely your DVD Player cannot play the type of audio file that is on your disk. For example, when authoring a DVD, DVD Architect wants to see either a Dolby AC3 file or a wav file. Any mpeg audio is re-encoded to AC3.

I would bet mpeg audio is outside of the DVD Video Disk
specs. Hence, it will not play on a a settop box, but will play on a computer since it can read many read many file formats.

If you need to be able to play the audio on a set top box
I would render the project out with AC3 audio instead of MPEG.

Regards, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377

[Rick Mac]

Orson,

I have experience with both FCP and Vegas.
Where I work has 8 FCP Systems and I edit
a lot in Vegas.

My observation is this. FCP and Vegas are both very good
editing systems. Both have there really strong points and a few weak spots.

FCP Thoughts:

Lots of wizbang. You can create some really slick stuff in a hurry (after learning the program) and you get a lot of help via templates.
Motion is really cool.
You need a strong, fast, computer and hardware to make FCP get off the ground well, (can you say money).
Some task that should be quite simple are not. Vegas kicks butt in this area.
FCP is a bit closed. It does not like to play with other editing system formats.
Many times you have to do a render before you can preview.
This drives me crazy.

Vegas Thoughts:

Simple to use compared to other editing systems
including FCP. Very good preview rates when used with a
fast computer. PC’s are less expensive than Macs.
You can play a whole lot many different formats of
audio and video files from the Vegas timeline.
You can mix and match diffrent types of files and formats
on the Vegas timeline without a render step as in FCP.
Vegas has some really strong pan/crop and compositing
tools. Vegas has scripting featuure which can automate
certain task for you saving much time and effort.
Simply the best audio toolset of any editing software.
Vegas 8 Pro Multicam tool is way better than FCP’s.
You can cut a project very quickly in Vegas.
Weak spot, not a lot of templates for the wizbang.
You have to learn how to create it yourself.

I will stop there and give others the chance to say a word.

As you can tell I like Vegas a lot.
I also like FCP. For most things I like Vegas over FCP.
If you will be working with other FCP users and you
have the money and time to learn FCP that might be the way
to go. If you want a very capable system that is more afforable and much easier to use, and I think more enjoyable to edit on and you do not need to worry about editing projects from other FCP files, Vegas is the way my son.

Regards, and happy editing, Rick.

Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377