[Videocool]

Wow…

I guess this is one of those video production things that are best taught by applying a 2 x 4 to side of my head…

Yeah it renders slowly… 28 to 1 by my feeble calculations… I’m sure it must have added something… I’ve only got a 32″ monitor tho… I’ll have to keep looking…

What I want to do… is get rid of those pesky thin line horizontal flickers…

the slides I’m using start as jpgs (not my choice, but at least they are scanned at around 1800 lines of resolution),

then I color correct the Jpgs,
then resave the color corrected slides as PNG’s
then pan and scan for the “Burns Look”
render those slides as an avi…
and convert that video into 30p avi material in DVFILM… (so far DVFILM is the winner for conversion to
Progressive in terms of quality and speed)

Once I learn a bit more about Magic Bullet, perhaps it will be useful… but at 28 to 1 renders, I’ll
stick to my present work flow for this project.

If anyone has any hints, I’m all ears… OK they are a bit swollen from the 2 x 4, but I am listening.

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

[Billwil] “So on to the real question…how do you organize your projects and how does your workflow relate to this. What about when you are done with a project, how do you archive, backup, store, etc.”

Hey guys…

I’m learning a bunch here…

Nevertheless… this is how I do it.

If I am recording a big live show… I record direct to the Computer thru the Switcher via Vegas Capture.

As a Show usually means about 12 hours of raw footage, I start with fresh drive. Each seperate part of the show gets a folder.

So I wind up with about six 2 hour avi clips in six folders. That eats up about 120 gigs.

While I’m capturing direct to the computer, I’m also recording to DVCAM… (the switcher analog feed is converted to firewire and passed into VEGAS).

I also record the cameras (usually 3 or 4 cameras) to digital tape. I use DVCAM in the big cameras, and use DVRACK in a laptop for the camcorders. Here is another trick I do in a live show… I run a feed from the audio mixer… to the nearest DVCAM camera and record yet another mixed down audio master. Nevermind all that paranoia, back to the computer.

Once the raw footage is captured, I begin editing, and render the avi clips to a second drive. There the folders are labeled by show as well. That gives me another copy of the project… the good edited clips.

Then as I begin creating DVD projects; Rendering the MPEGS and ac3 audio clips, these go on a third drive. When I load those MPG’s into DVD-Architect, I save the finished project to a fourth drive… as each DVD is typically in size from 1 to 2 gigs… I can get a couple of hundred DVD’s onto that drive. I burn the DVD projects as they are created, but the DVD folders are still there; in case the client finds a problem soon after delivery.

I keep very little on my System drive, except for Windows, Vegas, DVDA, NERO, etc,. I use Acronis True Image to keep a backup copy of the System Drive.

I keep the VEGS, the DARS, and the NERO files on my “D” drive… That’s also where any zip files, utilities, etc. are also kept. As a result of this thread I’m also going to start keeping a copy of these directories on my system drive and include them in the Image file that Acronis makes.

As my “D” partition is on a fairly big drive I can also use it a storage directory to keep Title directories and audio files that I might reuse. Before I use those they are copied to the Video hard drive though.

I do have a Page File on the System drive, just in case I should ever run out of RAM… and I use SysInternals PageDefrag on that automatically on every reboot. I use DG-Defragmenter for any harddrive defragging… both freeware.

Once a project is done… (if ever), I copy the finished avi files, the finished MPEG files that can be reused, and a copy of the VEG directory and the DAR directory to a Project hard drive. I do keep DVD files of Master projects that I make more than one copy of. I usually don’t keep the finished DVD files of projects that I’m only making one or two copies of, as if I have to go back to those projects after a bit of time, it is usually to make changes, and the DVD files wouldn’t be of much use. I remove that hard drive from my computer and keep it in a Rubbermaid box.

After I’ve got that hard drive out of the system, I format any work drives, and test them with HDTUNE or SPINRITE.

I also make a DVCAM tape Master of entire shows… that’s also the Master I use for making any VHS copies. Hey, real time still exists and it keeps the computer from being tied up with Print To Tape. I find it astonishing that a 180 minute DVCAM tape is 40 bucks and a 160 gig drive is 80 bucks. I still have a couple of 2 gig drives that I paid nearly five thousand dollars for.

I use USB/Firewire drives for external use. One or two 300 gig drives is great to drop in a big laptop bag for traveling. If I’m capturing via firewire, I can use the drives for recording via USB. If I have to use an old computer without USB2, firewire access is always available.

If it is a really important project, (say my single big screen client), I keep a DVCAM copy off site… at the directors house, fortunately he is more paranoid, uh, careful than me.

Thanks for starting this thread…

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

[Steven J Casey] “Seems like I saw something about this before but can’t find it now. I’m using my camera to passthrough a DVD because the original files are not available. It’s working great except that there’s a thin black line on the left edge of the screen and even thinner line on the bottom. What causes this and can I capture without it?

Thanks
Steven”

Hey Steven…

I’m guessing that these lines won’t be visible on a TV or an Overscanned Monitor… just on your Computer Preview or an Underscanned monitor.

It probably won’t be a problem on playback… if it is, you can always resize your video… but it will cause a slight degradation of the picture… either way it’s probably not a bit deal…

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

[jeditdv] “[Princess] “They have been DVD-Rs. Should I use something else?”

DVD-R is fine in most cases. That is what I use.

[Princess] “So if you use Nero, do you at least make your menu buttons and chapters in DVD-A? Does Nero write a .dar file?”

Nero does nothing with DAR files. What you do is create the DVD in DVD Architect and then choose the “Prepare” option. This will create a Video_TS and Audio_TS pair of folders inside the folder you specify. Now you use Nero to simply burn those prepared folders to the DVD.”

Hi guys…

I also use DVD-R’s …

Now about NERO…

I use NERO SMART START… to open the program.

I select Photo and Video and then Burn DVD- Video Files.

That brings up a NERO Express panel where I choose ADD.

That opens a Window called Select Files and Folders.

I pull that window down just a little so I can see the NERO Express DVD-Video window behind it… (So I can see when the files are actually added.)

I navigate to the folder where the DVD-Architect files are kept. Those are the files that DVDA makes in the Prepare function.

As an Example… Suppose in DVDA I just Prepared my Single Movie project to a Folder called Princess-1. I click once on that folder and then once on the Add button.

In the Nero Express window I can see a few files appear at the top of the screen… Files with strange names like… VIDEO_TS.BUP and VTS_01_O.IFO and VIDEO_TS.VOB. Depending on the complexity of the DVD there may be just a few or a lot of files in there. You don’t need to see them all; just to know that they are there.

These are the files that NERO or your burning program will use to make your DVD.

A side note here… if you double click on a folder (your Princess-1 folder) with DVD files in it… there should be two more folders in there… an Audio folder and a Video folder… there won’t be anything in the Audio folder, don’t worry.

Next to the ADD button on the Select Files and Folders window is a Finished button. Click that once.

That window disappears and leaves you with the DVD-Video files window.

You don’t need to add anything else here… just click NEXT.

The next window is Final Burn Settings. You should see your DVD recorder listed there… IBM MultiBurner or something.

Give your DVD a name… PrincessTEST1.

Choose a writing speed. Some people want to use slower burn speeds, that’s probably a good trouble shooting technique, until everything is running smooth.

Another choice you may also want to make is Verify data on disc after burning.

With all choices made… click Burn. Your program will probably ask for a disc… put a new one in your burner and close the door.

Burning should begin in about 20 seconds or so.

When your video is burned to DVD, NERO will check (Verify) that the data was written to your disc correctly. This is also a trouble shooting technique that you probably won’t have to do once everything is working.

When the program is done… it will give you an opportunity to Save and Exit and will probably automatically eject your finished DVD-R.

Now that all that is said…

I still suspect that you should carefully check your Renders in VEGAS…

MPEG’s for DVDA must be Rendered using the DVD Architect presets.

Audio must be rendered at 48000 Hz ac3.

As a test… just drop a single AVI clip onto the Project Overview window and let DVDA do the compression for your Single Movie.

Then do a Prepare.

Then Burn using your burn program… (NERO). If you are not using NERO, let us know what you are using.

If you don’t have a seperate Burn program, just Prepare and Burn it in DVDA and let us know how it works.

Good Luck…

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

[Princess] “I have create three seperate movie DVDs now, with menus and chapters (but I haven’t used markers – I just do it in DVDa). All three movies have created the same results. It will play on newer DVD players and not on my computer DVD player.

I do work in Windows. I have an IBM DVD Multi-Burner (does that help?). I have two DVD players on my computer. Neither of them will read by burned DVDs – Power DVD and interActual (is that the same co.?) Both of these softwares will play store-bought DVDs just fine.

I capture my video as .avi and then render the entire video as mpeg2 than burn in DVD Architect.”

Hi again…

It sounds like your system should be able to play the DVD’s. A couple of questions… are you using DVD-R’s or DVD+R’s… or even DVD-RW’s or DVD+RW’s?

Try a simple project… just a Single Movie… no menu.

Use the Mainconcept MPEG2 DVD Architect Video Stream presets. NTSC or PAL as you need.

Use the .ac3 audio presets.

One more thing. When you go thru the Prepare and Make DVD process… and you get to the Make DVD – Review Message List window… there is an Optimize button… Click that.

Everything should be green check marks… if not, something is wrong. It will also tell you if it is going to Recompress any Video or Audio that is not Compliant.

Another technique is just to drop the .avi clip onto the Project Overview window and let DVD-A do all the compression.

Try a burn or two within DVD-A, if that is still not working… find the software that came with the IBM multi-burner and try a burn with that.

I personally use NERO-6 to burn my files instead of DVD-A.

Good luck…

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

Hi there again…

I forgot to turn on email response to this thread… so I’m making another quick post… a few posts up above I’ve made some suggestions on menu based editing, when you get there… you may want to look those over.

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

[Princess] “From Vegas 5 I render my videos as Mpeg2s and then I burn them in DVD Architect. Unfortunately, I have discovered that my finished DVD product will only play in new DVD players and it WILL NOT play in my computer. My DVD player does not read the disc, and I’ve tried DVD players in multiple computers. (I would think the disc would play in my computer before it would play in a traditional DVD player.)
I’m not sure where I am going wrong. Initially with rendering? Burning? Or even at the very beginning when deciding the properties for my video.
Any suggestions.”

Hi there…

We might need a bit more information to precisely figure out what’s going on, but I’ll start with some basics.

You might want to test these suggestions with a smaller project to make the whole process go faster.

These are troubleshooting suggestions (or troublefree techniques, whatever…).

Begin with a single avi clip. In other words if you have transitions, filters or whatever they should all be rendered into the avi clip before you render to MPEG.

OK so you have a single avi clip laying on the timeline… maybe 20 minutes long. (29.97 fps video and 48000 Hz audio).

If you have Marker points set they can be used in DVDA as chapter points. As long as you select Save Markers during the Render.

Render it into MPEG using the MainConcept MPEG2 DVD Architect NTSC Video Stream Template settings, you do not need to customize it. (If you are in Europe use PAL… 😉

Vegas comes up with a default MPEG render Template selected. (You do not want to use that.)

Use the DVD Architect NTSC video stream presets… don’t change anything, don’t customize it… later on you can tweak… but right now we are troubleshooting.

The first pass only Renders the video… you also must do an audio Render… to ac3.
American DVD players have to play this format… they do not have to play MPEG audio… (although some of the newer units might.).

The audio must be rendered into 48000 Hz for DVD usage. Use the DVD presets… choose the Stereo DVD Template.

Render it to your dedicated video hard drive. Make a new folder for it… DVDTEST or something.

Ok save your .veg in Vegas and close Vegas.

When you are done Rendering both passes, there should be two files in that folder, a .mpg file and a .ac3 file.

Now open DVD Architect.

From the File choice, pick New and choose Single movie. Let’s keep it simple at this point.

From the Explorer window drag your .mpg file to the Project Overview window.
It should also appear in your Timeline window and the .ac3 audio clip will automatically be added (if the two files have the same name).

It may take a minute for the audio clip to build it’s waveforms.

If you Rendered your Markers in Vegas they should also appear, if not choose Load Markers.

Note to any gurus out there… I started with DVD Architect 3 so if I’m giving bad directions for DVDA-2 just join in and beat me about the ears.

If you want to add any other Markers you can do that now as well.

Save the project.

Test the project in the Preview window… plays OK… Chapters work. Good. Close the Preview.

Save your DAR.

Now choose: Make DVD.

You can choose three things here… you don’t need to choose Master unless you are going to Replicate your project… probably not.

If you have a Burning program like NERO 6… you can choose Prepare… which sets up the files for Nero to use. (This is the technique I use… it adds just a little bit more compatibility in my tests… OK it makes DVD-R’s that will play in my daughter’s cheap DVD player, but I find that to be a very useful test).

If you don’t have NERO, use the Burn choice.

Use the highest quality media… (Verbatim, Fujifilm or MAM-A have worked for me).

Don’t multitask while you are Burning, Rendering, or anything else video related. Leave the mouse alone.

Don’t surf the net… turn off your screensaver… make sure your Power settings are Always ON. I guess I should shut up here… that’s a whole ‘nuther post.

Well that’s enough to get you started…

Good Luck

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

Hi there…

I’ll take a whack at this one… I often reuse dar files… As a matter of fact that’s how I quickly build new DVD’s.

I take the DAR menu and just add or delete media and the corresponding buttons and links.

Here’s an example.

For instance, I have an OPENING clip (named 2005open-1.mpg), a PERFORMANCE clip(named JONES.mpg), and a FINALE clip (named FINALE-2.mpg).

I keep the OPENING clip which links to the PERFORMANCE clip (that’s the clip I change) which is linked to the FINALE clip, and I keep the FINALE clip. The Finale clip doesn’t link to anything, it’s End Action is Stop.

My MENU doesn’t change. The Buttons read OPENING, PERFORMANCE, and FINALE.

The LINKS read 2005-Open-1, Jones, and Finale-2… that’s in the Project Overview Window.

To change the media, (let’s say the original video MPEG was called JONES.mpg and I want to change it to SMITH.mpg), I click on JONES in the Project Overview window.

That opens up the Media Properties window. Under the Track Media option: which has TWO parts listed… Video and Audio.

Right Clicking on Video brings up an small arrow button that allows you to Replace that mpg with SMITH.mpg.

And you also have to Replace the JONES.ac3 with SMITH.ac3.

Something Important… (and a peeve of mine…), if the clip you replace is longer than the original clip; you have to adjust the grayed out area on the Timeline window. Easy to do, easy to forget to do. Just drag the yellow arrow over to the end.

If your added or replaced clip has rendered markers, you also need to load those markers, just click on the Load Markers button at the top of the Timeline window.

You can also add media to that MENU based DVD. Find the media you want to add in your Explorer window and drag it to the Project Overview window.

IF you made your original DVD as a single movie… you will have to find that media on your hard drive and use it to make a menu based DVD.

Otherwise if you rerender it in VEGAS you will lose quality.

Good luck,

Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985

[Videocool]

[Arthur] “thanks for thinki9ng with me steve.
Levels are ok, thats not the point,

[Videocool]

[Arthur] “Very strange problem: I captured video from another camera then usual. The audio is 32 khz. The clips play fine from the timeline, sound good. But when I print to tape the audio is very distorted.
The distortion is only in the audio of those captured clips (other audio, like cd tracks or other videoclips prints good).
strange thing: when I set the audio-channels in the problematic clips to Left-only or Right-only, the distortion at print-to-tape disappears.
And what puzzles me most: if I render all the audio to a new track (in 32kHz or 48kHz project) and solo that new track, the audio again plays fine from the timeline, but is still distorted over the problematic clips.

I’ve been troubleshooting it for quite some time. It happens in Vegas 5 as well as 6.
There seems to be a fault in the media that only appears when it is played back to the camera through firewire.
What can this be?”

Hey there…

I’ll take a go at this problem…

You might check your audio levels on these clips… Set the Master Audio Levels to View… and make sure you aren’t hitting the red… often times summing two tracks will increase the levels just enough to push it over the line.

If that is the case Normalize those clips (you may have to Split them at the spots just before and after the audio is peaking), or put the audio on a seperate track and set the levels manually… With your experience you may have already tried these things, but I often forget simple stuff too…

Good Luck
Steve

Sony VX-1000 and others, P4 3gHz,
3000 Gigabytes Online(Not Enough), AMD64 laptop, Vegas+DVD-Architect, ReelDVD, DVFILM, Lightwave, Photoshop, Independent Production Since 1985