[Wayne Waag]

@Bob.

Agree completely. The whole Apple business model has been to make everything proprietary, so once you buy, you’re stuck. Rather than a $2 usb cable, it’s $10 for a lightning cable. There’s no USB on today’s Ipad’s unless you buy something else. The rumor has it that the new 13″ Ipad “may” have USB3.0. Granted, the products are very good so long as you’re willing to stay within their narrow confines and limitations. Having built my own systems for the last 15 years or so, I take some comfort that I know exactly what went into them and that I have options for changing at will.

@Steve

Starting with Windows 10, if your PC dies, your license for Win10 also dies.

That’s been the case for a long time if you buy the OEM version of the software–the same as if you buy a complete system with the OS already installed. I can’t see that downloading the original OS from the Web would prevent you from making backups using Acronis and then being able to restore if there is a hard drive failure.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

I wonder if those cookies have any secret ingredients.

Wouldn’t know, but you can be sure they’re proprietary.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

And don’t forget TV overscan which will cost you about 10% on older TV’s and 5% on the newer ones. If you’re that concerned about showing the entire image, just shrink it so that black bars are showing on all four sides. Some of the older slideshow software programs used to have an option for doing just this.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

@Bob

It would, of course, be far better to have an actual back up to fall back on. My current backup program is Acronis True Image which has saved me on several occasions.

Agree completely. I also use Acronis for weekly backup of my OS, although quite frankly, I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to use it, if ever. Guess I’ve been lucky. I also do daily backups of all data and project files using a very old piece of software called Backup Magic Editor, which I have used fairly often. It’s easy to really delete something in Vegas, and not send it to the Recycle Bin. Actually, that would be a useful option.

@jr

(sorry to preach but I couldn’t resist)

Let’s face it. You’re the stereotypical MAC user–always touting your toys–the 1% of the computer world. My son-in-law is just like that. My daughter, at least, is still a PC user, although I’m afraid that by co-habitating with a Mackie, she may become infected one day. All kidding aside, that is pretty neat about restoring your OS online, although it would seem a lot slower than restoring from another hard drive, especially if you have a slow internet.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

I’m clipping some video someone gave me, and it’s 720×480, 29 fps. On it’s own, it’s looks ok. But when I use SV to clip it, the resulting clips look much worse.

Back to your original question. If all you want to do are basic cuts, maybe add titles, etc., you want to use software that will smart-render (not re-render) your footage. Vegas does smart-render MPG footage, but it is very picky (obviously, it hasn’t worked for your footage). Others are more forgiving. Suggest you try something like VideoRedo, TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer or Womble. Most have a free trial. You can also search for freeware tools on Videohelp.com. Sometimes, using Vegas is not the answer.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

i’ts not only the ones that i’ve created that disappeared, even the default ones disappeared
how do i do a restore?

Before doing a system restore, make sure that everything is backed up and programs are closed. Here are the steps for Win 7:
1. Left-click Start Button
2. Right click Computer and select Properties
3. In upper left window, left click on System Protection
4. This will bring up the System Properties Window
5. Left click on System Restore. This will start a wizard leading you through the process. Select a restore point when your system was working OK.
Just be aware that restoring to a previous time will delete any program changes that have since been made. There is an option to scan and see what programs would be affected. Good luck.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

I presume these are ones that you’ve created and those are the ones missing? The location for the templates you create are “C:UsersWayneAppDataRoamingSonyRender Templates”. Go to that location,using your user name, and see if those templates are still there. If not, they have to be recreated. If they are still in that location, make sure you have logged in as the user associated with those templates. If that doesn’t work, try a system restore to a previous time when they were working.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Very well said, Bob. It seems that are our respective workflows are pretty much the same. Photoshop is an amazing tool–the one that I’m willing to part with $10 a month for their latest version on CC. You can also apply most filters to video, but the rendering is very slow.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

You first need to decide exactly what type of animation effects you want to apply. If all you want is some combination of pan, zoom, and rotate, then Vegas will work fine. The advantage of VASST Stillmotion and others such as Vegasaur (my preference), is that it will randomly apply these effects to all of your selected events. As Steve points out, it’s a lot easier than doing them individually. I use this approach all the time for what I call a preview or a teaser–just add a title and a music track and you’re done.

However, if you want to give some thought to exactly what type of motion to apply to each slide (recommended), then it becomes more difficult within Vegas. For example, zoom 20% bottom to middle on slide 1, pan lower left to upper right on slide 2, etc. Another problem is how to handle photos that were shot in portrait mode rather than landscape, especially in 16×9. Perhaps you want to have two moving portraits within the same frame? What do you do with the black borders? Do you want to present a moving photo with a border perhaps against a fading background? Granted, all of these things can be done within Vegas, but it becomes very laborious. If these are the things you want to do rather than very simple motion effects, use Proshow and consider upgrading to Producer (recommended). The real time-saver is being able to save an effect that you’ve created and then apply it in the future.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Can we do frame by frame editing for Video FX?

The simple answer is yes. For each Fx, there is usually an animate button which allows you to use keyframes in the manner described by Bob.

wwaag