Re: Vegas movie studio platinum authentication code

An aside here for a moment.

leslie, Chris is an Aussie like you so feel free to help out.
After all, you live a LOT close than I do :-)

Chris, first of all, I agree with you that a good capture would eliminate all your other problems so let's work on that.

You are capturing through a firewire port, right?
Did you have the camera connected and powered up before you started the capture program?
Are you using VidCap, the Sony capture utility?
How did you do the actual capture? By that, I mean did you roll the tape and then press "Capture Video" or something else?
As I type this, I'm capturing the first of 7 tapes with my Canon Elura so yours should work just as easily.

MPEG-1 files will never look as good as the original file because too much is being thrown out during the conversion.

There's no way that I know of to print out the various settings you've tried. That's why I keep paper & pencil handy at times.
If you need the manual, grab it from http://download.sonymediasoftware.com/manuals/
An excellent resurce are all the free newsletters (PDF format) on Jetdv's site at http://tinyurl.com/2jm8uz (shortened due to link length.
read the descriptions and download the ones you think you'll need to get you started. They're written for the full version of Vegas but most things are still applicable for you.

You've only got 4 video and 4 audio tracks (the full version is unlimited) so you do have to be somewhat careful on how you do things.
As I recall, Movie Studio starts up with a preset layout as far as track names, etc. are concerned. Be advised that these are not carved in stone and can be changed as desired.
If I'm wrong about the default layout, extra audio and video tracks can be added by using the "Insert" menu options.
For this example, create 4 video tracks and place the video clip (Vegas calls a clip an "event") on track 4.
Text has to go on a track over top of any video event to be seen.
A text track is just another video track so you can have up to 3 of them (in addition to your video track).
Use Pan/Crop to position your text tracks. Look in the Help menu or look through Jetdv's newsletters on how to use this feature.
Place the continuous text event on it's own track (#1, in this case) and position as desired (top lefthand corner using Pan/Crop).
Place the next text event on track 2 and position as desired (bottom lefthand corner using Pan/Crop) on track 2.
Place the next text event on track 3 and position as desired (bottom righthand corner using Pan/Crop).
Alternate subsequent events on tracks 2 & 3 as needed.
To fade an event (text or video) in or out,place the cursor in the top left or right corner of the event. You'll see it change to a 1.4 circle. Drag this forwards or backwards to fade in or out.

Once again, use Pan/Crop to position your JPEG as desired.
The reason I don't suggest using Track Motion for this is because, without using keyframes, it affects everything on the track, whether you want it to or not.

If you find that you've run out of tracks and can't insert your JPEG, render the entire sequence out as a DV-AVI and bring that back into Vegas for more editing. The encoder in Vegas is one of the best there is and the quality loss for a pass or two is difficult, if not impossible, to detect.

The biggest drawback to the internet is the time difference amongst users. You're in Australia and I'm in Canada. It's after midnight here and I have to get some sleep tonight. I'll check after I wake up and se how you're making out.

BTW, I regularly correspond with some users from your part of the world.
Let me know where you live and, if you're close to them, I can send put you in touch with them.

Feel free to contact me off-list if you want to.
Remove all the spamblocker Xs in the first part of my email address to reply.

Mike


chris wrote:

Mike
Thanks for your help

The main questions I have are;

Capturing from a camcorder. I have Canon 830 camcorder and it was not
recognised by VMS so I used the default Microsoft DV camera to
download the movie. This worked OK and I got the clip I wanted into an
avi. But the quality of the avi was not as good as the original - the
avi contained some ghosting and horizontal lies at the edges of
objects int the video (Interleaving problem?) I was using PAL DV
format to download and for subsequent processing. When I downloaded
from the camcorder using Pinnacle Studio 9, the resultant avi was as
good as the original on the camcorder.
I tried making an mpeg-1 from the avi with VMS (no editing or anything
yet) and the result was that the mpg was somewhat blurry and ghosted
and had the interleaving problems. I then made a dvd with DVD
Architect Studio 4.5 and the result was not good - the motions were
very jerky, there was a little ghosting and some interleaving
problems. I used the Reduce interlace flicker option and tried
different sampling types but it didn't make a lot of difference. I
don't like to say it but doing these simple things with Studio 9 gave
me almost perfect results.
I think if I could get a downloaded avi that was as good as the
original, all (or most) of the other problems would go away or could
be solved.

Is there any way of printing out the different option parameters and
settings that are used in the various places - this would be good for
keeping track of trying out different options.

Another application I have is to edit avis produced by another
program. I want to add text and jpegs to the avi and then make a DVD
(and/or mpg, wmv) of the final result. I have had a bit of success
with this but need to know a couple of things. Can more than one text
event be added ? I would like to have say one text event place text in
the top lefthand corner and to remain there for the whole of the clip.
Then after 30secs, I would like to add another text event to put text
in the bottom lefthand corner and stay for 45 sec, then after 35 sec,
another text event lasting 20 sec to add text to the bottom righthand
corner (ie partly overlapping the second text event), and so on. I
don't seem to be able to get more than 2 events at once and have
trouble getting the second event to come up without a fade in/out.

Finally, I want to add a small jpg to the main video event. I have
partially succeeded in this but there seem to be some limits on how
much the jpg can be shrunk in size, and in positioning the (shrunk)
jpg close to the edges of the frame. I can't find any details on
limits to size, positions etc.

This sounds a bit way out but I have specific needs for doing it. I
have nearly succeeded by using other software but have not been able
to do everything and it was very very slow and error prone. VMS seems
to be a lot easier if I can solve a few of the basics.

Any help you can give would be most appreciated
Thanks
Chris
.

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