[Rob Mack]

I just did it before posting. You know, test first, then write…

Use the Debugmode frameserver. To get it working In Vegas8 you have to make a registry modification, and you can find instructions if you go search on the Sony Creative Software forum. From there, you can use the Quicktime player to export still frames.

You’d have to look at the output for yourself to decide if it meets your standards. All this is free, except for Quicktime Pro, so I strongly recomend that you try it for yourself.

But I think it’ll do what you want.

Rob

[Rob Mack]

Just looked again at what Quicktime formats Vegas can see and there are a whole set of Avid codecs I installed. So I’m not really sure who’s doing the blocking, but I suspect it’s the codec providers, not Sony.

But that raises another question, what do other vendors on the windows platform do to enable some of the more proprietary codecs? Do they pay a fee?

Rob

[Rob Mack]

Very true, not all the formats that QT Pro lists are there in Vegas. FLV isn’t there for instance, and I assume it’s a proprietary issue. I don’t really know who’s doing the “blocking” but I suspect that it’s not some malicious act on Vegas’ part.

Image Sequence is one of the QT options doesn’t show up in Vegas, so you have to frame serve out of Vegas in YUY2 format and then use QT Pro to make the image sequence. Not ideal because it’s a few more steps.

Vegas’s own image sequence export is a script, not a built in function, so technically Vegas can’t actually make image sequences AT ALL. But it can do it via a script and to configure the output you have to properly configure the preview window. If you don’t do that things don’t work.

But I see what you’re saying about the PAR being screwed up on image sequences. The script saves files using the same “save snapshot to file” function found on the preview window. That feature doesn’t give you an option to save as actual pixels – the only way to do that is to save snapshot to clipboard and then paste it, which is probably unusable in a script. The script saves a sequence of PAR corrected images, which is not really acceptable if you’re outputting to AEFX. Still image output is very dumbed down in Vegas.

So thanks for inadvertantly pointing out the workaround using the debugmode frameserver, as that allows you to use quicktime Pro to create real image sequences.

Rob Mack

[Rob Mack]

I thought the whiz bang stuff was kind of nice, except for the learning curve of finding things, but this marginal system definitely perked up after turning all this extra chrome off.

rob

[Rob Mack]

True, Vegas’ frame sequence output is based on the preview frame buffer. With a little care it’s dead easy to to do and you get essentially uncompressed output, but you only get a few image output options and of course you can only get 8-bit color (and now that Vegas can read and write 10-bit media you might want stills in a higher bit depth).

I rarely have a reason to export via quicktime so I guess I’ve not made a close comparison of what Quicktime Pro offers Vs what Vegas offers. I’d love to try it out. Can you give me an example (other than FLV) of codecs that appear in QTPro and not Vegas? If it’s a free codec I’d be happy to download and install, but I don’t expect Vegas to use non-free QT codecs. I assume tey’re proprietary.

Rob

[Rob Mack]

I cannot tell you what Vegas would do with the codecs included in an external compressor like Squeeze or ProCoder. Usually, Vegas picks up all the Quicktime or VFW files you have installed. The only exception I’ve noticed the VP6 codec that Flash installs. Quicktime Pro can see it but I’ve never seen it as a render option from Vegas, suggesting that a vendor can prevent third parties from accessing their codecs through quicktime.

Most other NLEs don’t allow you to run multiple instances of the program, so you need an external compressor to get compression done while you edit something else. External compressors usually give you some nice features like watch folders, render queues, etc, and these features make them superior to rendering directly out of Vegas, but since Vegas can be run three or four times simultaneously an external compressor is not quite as compelling as it would be for PPro or FCS.

Vegas actually does a very good job of being a full featured compressor. I just did some frame serving out to the Windows Media Encoder and in retrospect Vegas could have done everything I did in the external encoder. It sees all the options. The only thing that WME could do is save session profiles that I could then email to someone if I wanted to. I think an external compressor would make life much easier if I was doing a lot of compression.

Rob Mack

[Rob Mack]

I have not run Vegas on Vista, let alone a laptop, but I wouldn’t be afraid to do so. Still, if I could get a laptop with XP I’d choose that over Vista.

You should ask the vendor if you can get the system with Windows XP. Microsoft has loosened up on its insistence that vendors bundle Vista with their systems. If the vendor says no then either look at their business laptops or look at another vendor. For instance, I know HP has been selling their business laptops with XP all along, and these come with a lot less junk software than the home models.

The one thing I might be looking for in a laptop is an ExpressCard slot, because it’s newer technology and more forward-looking than a PCMCIA slot . This may make no difference for you but the ExpressCard slot should support the upcoming Sony XDCAM EX.

Okay, I say I wouldn’t be afraid of running Vegas on Vista, but I’d avoid it if I could. Not a ringing endorsement. The thing about Vista is that it uses a newer graphics driver model that scavenges system memory even if you use a discrete graphics card. So it’ll dig into your 2GB of system memory.

You can simplify the Vista interface and this should help a lot. Basically you do the same things you’d do to XP – change to a Windows Classic theme, turn off all the screen effects, etc, etc. You can probably find all these tips on the web, they’re some of the same tips given for XP a few years ago, but they seem to have a much more drastic effect on Vista.

Rob Mack

[Rob Mack]

I was hedging about whether the codecs would show up in Vegas because I think that the Flash FLV codec shows in Quicktime Pro but not in Vegas. So I guess some things don’t make it to Vegas.

Rob Mack

[Rob Mack]

I get the impression it’s supposed to go into beta by the end of this year.

Rob

[Rob Mack]

Pretty incomprehensible. Stepping stone from where to where? What’s a stepping stone to a centipede?

Vegas exports to most quicktime codecs if you’ve got them installed. I’m not sure anymore whether you really need quicktime pro, I’ve always had it and can’t remember why I need it, but it’s cheap.

If you want all the Sorenson stuff you can get it from them for $650.00. I don’t really know how many of the codecs they provide would be available in Vegas, but you could frameserve out to the Sorenson suite.

Rob Mack