HDV:What You NEED to Know

 

"Vegas 6 FASST!" with .:Mike Chenoweth .:John Rofrano .:Jeffrey Fisher .:Douglas Spotted Eagle 4 of the most knowledgeable names in the Vegas training world bring you this 2 hour DVD on Vegas 6, including special extras on the disk! CHECK IT OUT!

First, let me say that this is not a review of Sony Vegas 6 software. Given my preference for Vegas, it's difficult to be completely objective and so I've made it a point to not ever review Sony Vegas software. (or any other Sony software) Therefore, this article is about what's new, how to use the features, and what I really like about the new Vegas 6 software.

Before you install Vegas 6, it will require that you update a couple bits of Windows XP. You'll need to load up the .Net 1.1 update, and you'll also need to install DirectX 9. Vegas 6 will not install until you complete these two steps. You can download the .Net 1.1 update from here, and the DirectX 9 update here.

PREFERENCES:
First off, you'll note that the Preferences dialog has had few changes. Nothing hugely significant, but some of the tabs and options have changed. For example, the first tab that you'll notice has changed is the  Preview Device tab. Here is where you'll set up Vegas 6 for access to the Blackmagic Design DeckLink card. If you've got a a dual display, this is also where you'll set up your second monitor as a display device. We'll talk more about that later. Finally, this is also where you'll select the OHCI/Firewire device as your output option. This is what you'll use if you're doing standard DV.

Next to that, you'll note the addition of the Print Device tab. This tab is where you'll select the device that you'd like Vegas to use when printing to tape. Again, note the Blackmagic DeckLink in this window. If you don't have a DeckLink installed, you'll not be able to access this option.

Next, you'll note the addition of the VST effects tab. This is where you'll access VST plugins that you'd like to have accessible in Vegas. We'll cover the VST features later in this article.

UP TO SPEED:
Another new difference that isn't so visible, is the multi-core rendering engine. It's been reworked, rebuilt, and all I can say is "WOW!" Working on some of the new VASST projects, as well as doing work for television stations, I've noticed a renderspeed increase of up to 40%. IN other words, the amount of time required to render has been decreased by as much as 60% but of course, this is system and project dependent. It's much, much faster than previous versions of Vegas. It's wonderful seeing the Sony engineers take on the render speed issue, because this has always been a primary complaint related to Vegas. The only thing keeping the previous versions in serious running is the quality of the render. Vegas has always enjoyed a reputation for super clean lines in titles, transitions, and overlays. Now users get the super clean renders while enjoying the speed increase.

NESTING:
Next in the lineup is the nested projects feature. This is a huge addition to Sony Vegas. What this does is allows users to take individual project files (veg files) and drop them on a single timeline. Why would you want to do this? For a number of reasons. One might be that you've got several scenes that you've built in various instances of Vegas. In earlier versions, you need to render each segment as a file, then compile the file in a master timeline. Or, you'd have elaborate copy/paste schemes, and risk losing any track motion or other track based behaviors. With Vegas 6, you simply grab a veg file from the Vegas Explorer and drag it to the timeline. Vegas then renders a small file very quickly, that acts as a reference file. This saves the hassle of multiple renders. Further, it avoids rendering a file twice, once as a scene, and then rendering the scene in a longer, completed project. If you've decided to modify a segment of the production, when you modify the veg file in its own application, the master timeline containing several veg files, the master timeline is automatically updated. Another use for this feature, is that you might have several people working on various pieces of a project. As they each update their portions of the project, the master timeline is also updated. You can even color correct or match images in the master project! So, here's one of several real-world uses for this feature:

You're working on a 48 minute broadcast piece, and you've got a partner working on the teasers and interstitials, or bumps. You're cutting the packages. As you rough cut the packages together, he provides you with the interstitials, teasers, and bumps. You drop everything into a master project as a series of veg files, and you'll be able to see the show come together as a rough. Still another editor is creating graphics in a Quantel, Photoshop, or other system, and you'll need those to drop in as alpha channel lower thirds or sidebars. These can be dropped right over top of the other veg files as composited veg files. Yes, you CAN composite a veg file. You'll find some lower thirds on the VASST website made for Vegas 6 in the resources section.
Notice in the image below, you can see veg files in the newly renamed Project Media window. This is formerly known as the Media Pool. The veg file displays with all transparency, etc, showing the first frame that has video information in it. It's a very well thought out display tool.

Track Flattening:
Yet another use for this feature is to "flatten" intense composites, or bring deep composites in as part of a bigger project without having to render out the composite. Personally, this is one of my favorite features. I've got a few lower thirds that I've needed to render out in the past. Now, I can just drop the lower thirds directly on the timeline. Try this out by downloading some of the veg files from the VASST site. Drop them over top of existing projects. Import them one of three ways:

1. File>Import>Media, and browse for the desired veg file.
2. Drag a file from the Vegas 6 Explorer.
3. Double click the file in the Vegas Explorer window.

Notice them in the Media Pool, now renamed as Project Media. You'll see a thumbnail of your .veg file complete with any transparencies that might exist.

VIRTUAL STUDIO TECHNOLOGY:
VST is a plugin format that often runs a little more smoothly than DirectX plugins, but also offers a very wide array of access to various audio plugins that will benefit the audio user. In fact, there are a very large number of free VST plugins available on the web. I like the Kjaerhus audio plugins, they've got a Classic Series that are free, and they sound great.

To access the VST plugs, download or install them to a directory on a preferred hard drive. I install all my VST plugs to a folder on my C: drive labeled "VST" and that's it. Now, open Vegas, and go to Options>Preferences>VST.  Point the Default VST search folder to the folder you've installed or downloaded the files to, and then press the Refresh button in the dialog. This will instruct Vegas to search for whatever plugs you've installed, and they'll show up in your Vegas Audio FX options in the folder marked "VST." If you'd like to have alternative VST plugs, perhaps in the event that you'd like to sort them by manufacturer, Vegas 6 allows for up to two separate, alternative locations for search out FX.

You'll apply FX here just as you would with other plugins. Double click, and hit "OK" or single click, select "Add" and select OK. Then adjust the parameters of the plugin just as you would with any other plugin. You can chain VST plugs right alongside DirectX plugins, and there are many automatable VST plugins available if you need to automate certain FX on the timeline.

BROADCAST WAVE FORMAT:
Vegas now supports BWF files, or Broadcast Wave files. While the average user might not find these valuable, film makers, radio stations, television broadcasters, and users of high end recording devices will appreciate this new feature. Broadcast Wave Files are the same as .wav formats that you're likely already familiar with, except that a BWF file can contain metadata about the file, such as the author, the length of the file, and logging information that will allow the file to be logged for broadcast and copyright, or performance royalty needs. It also allows for timestamped files to be laid onto a timeline in exact position.

If you have BWF files, you can import them several different ways. Import them in alphabetical order, import them by timestamp, import files as a single timeline track, or create a new track for each file imported. The latter is critical if you've got multi-track projects from recording devices that generate BWF files.

To experiment and experience Broadcast Wave Files, you can download some test files by clicking the links below.
Linear BWF file, short version. (2 MByte)
Linear BWF file, long version. (18 MByte)
MPEG BWF file, short version. (600 kByte)
MPEG BWF file, long version. (5 MByte)

To read the BWF specifications, click HERE

PRESETS:
Hallelujah! Track Motion presets have been restored to users that missed this feature in Vegas 5 software. These work just as they did in earlier versions of Vegas, except now track motion presets include 3D presets as well. This will aid users in creating their 3D masterpieces, and allow the saving of the location of various settings.

AAF Import/Export:

AAF, or Advanced Authoring Format, is one of a few current standards by which various DAW's and NLE's can share project files. Using AAF, basic project information may be shared. You can export a project from Vegas and open it in Final Cut Pro, Avid products, and a few other NLE systems. Don't expect things like composites, color corrected video, or the majority of your transitions to open, it's primarily a means of getting the media on to a new timeline in exact placement with a few additional granules of sugar thrown on top for sweetness, but it's not the total answer. We should see some improvements on this front at some near point from a variety of third parties.

AV Sync Repair:
What a GREAT tool this is, in my opinion. Vegas will provide a display any time audio and video have become out of sync. You can resync by either slipping the audio back into place automatically, or tell the audio to be in sync from a particular point in the event/clip. Simply right click and choose the "Synchronize option."

Playhead scrubbing:
For those that like the way Adobe Premiere scrubs, Vegas now offers something similar, except it's better than frame accurate. Grab the playhead on the top of the Timeline and scrub. You'll hear your audio scrub like an analog tape deck with no look ahead or look behind. This is most useful if you're after a very specific frame of audio or a particular sample point and don't want to drill in deep and visually locate it. Drilling in deeper provides even more accuracy.

Also, notice the slip time in the image above. This indicates the length of time you're moving media down the Timeline, creating a transition, crossfade, or other movement over time on the timeline. It's a very useful visual display, particularly when rippling a timeline. This display with appear for selected and non-selected events, depending on what you might be editing.

Speaking of Ripple:
Ripple editing just got a lot better. Everything moves downstream now instead of sliding over top of each other, confusing your eye. It's a much more efficient means of working in my view. You'll be able to more intelligently see a ripple take place with realtime feedback from the application. This is perhaps one of my favorite features, simply because it's much easier to see how ripples are affecting the track or timeline, and exactly what is being affected. In other words, it works like you'd expect it to work.

Media Manager:
Wow! What a great tool. ACID 5 users have enjoyed this Media Manager format for several months now, so it was only logical that it would appear in Vegas at some near point in time. However, the Media Manager goes much deeper in Vegas. It displays thumbnails that Vegas auto-selects from the first frame of VISIBLE information, or you can set your own thumbnail. Sony engineers know that many video editors have black for the first frame or two of a video clip. Therefore, they built the system to look past the black for the first full frame of information, and the Media Manager displays that frame. To access a different frame that you'd prefer for display, right click the thumbnail and select the "Choose Thumbnail." From the Media Manager, you can actually start to build the project before placing anything on the timeline!
More importantly, the Media Manager allows metadata, or file information to be embedded inside the video file. Tags that indicate the type of shot, angle of shot, panning/zooming/static, closeup, medium, wide, author, keywords, dates, length, and much more are all part of the media management. You can search your entire database for a clip and find it in seconds. Or search the database for a number of clips that contain the same attributes, such as searching for all clips labeled "B-roll," or "Closeup" or similar. This does require some work at the capture/logging stage, but if you're working with several projects at once, working on a SAN, or sharing a number of project files with other editors, this particular tool is indispensable. You can also recapture media from here, and open files in Windows Media Player for a fast playback preview of the file.

To use the Media Manager, first open it up. Then click the Library Action button. This provides the option to create a new media library. Of course, you can also open existing libraries if you have any already created. You can download a sample ACID library here. This will show you how the metadata structure functions, even though the sample library is for ACID and not Vegas

Choose New Media Library from the dropdown menu, and this will offer a dialog to browse for the location of the folder(s) that you'd like to insert in the library. Browse to the location for the new folder/library, and give the media library a name. Click the Create button, and your new library will be created.

This window will open:

You'll need to add files to this library, so select the Add Media Files button, found next to the name of the folder. Notice that Vegas 6 gives you a report of how many files it sees as new, and how many are updated files in that specific folder.

You'll see the application search out all the files in the folder listed. Depending on the number of files in the folder, this may take a few minutes, but it's usually quite fast.

When the Media Manager is finished scanning the files, you'll be able to view them in the new window that opens up.

In this window, you'll first likely want to insert the descriptor tags to the video file. Do this by holding CTRL and clicking on each tag attribute related to your file. In this shot, I've selected Closeup, Static, and Cutaway shot as my preferred tags. You can now drag the tags to the media file, and on the right side of the screen, your selected tags will show up. In the Properties dialog, you can add all sorts of other search information and sorting/assets information, including keywords. The more you input, the more powerful the search and media management options become.  This will assist you in finding any related media by using the search tool. In the future, I expect stock footage libraries from footage providers to come with metatags as part of the library structure. Of course, merely the library name becomes part of the metadata, and that alone is quite helpful in locating media.

Right clicking in the Tags area allows you to create new tags. For example, I've added Still Images and subtags to my Media Manager system, since I do a lot of work with stills. This is very similar to the Photoshop browser that allows you to browse for images, except that Vegas' method can be a lot more intelligent, provided that you insert good descriptions.

At the bottom of the preview pane, which is illustrated as Thumbnails in this tutorial, you'll see a slider. This slider allows you to see the thumbnails at different sizes. Maybe you want to see more than 8 images, or 10 images, or 4 images at time. Reducing the thumbnail size allows you to see more images. In the image below, I can see the entire Dolphins library in one view. Clicking on any asset/thumbnail will immediately show me all properties/metadata contents of that file. Hovering the cursor over a shot will temporarily zoom the shot to a larger view.
The Details button allows the file name and extension to be viewed. Unchecking this will show only the thumbnail in thumbnail view mode.

You can insert Metatags to multiple pieces of media at one time by holding CTRL and clicking on all desired media, then click the tags you wish to use (again holding CTRL to select multiple tags if desired), and drag the tags to the media thumbnails. This adds the tags to multiple pieces of media at one shot, saving a lot of time, if you've got a group of similar shots, or shots you'd like to make all B-roll or cutaways, or master shots, or anything else. If you don't want to use keywords, create new metatags instead. It will still save you a lot of time.

To search for media by Genre, click the dropdown button in the Change Tags View option. Choose Video. This will give you a number of genre tags/choices, and you can add your own genre as well. In the image below, I've added the genre of "Drops." This indicates junk footage that can be used as emergency B-roll footage. However, you can tag the media any way you want by right clicking in the Tag View area, and creating a new tag there. To make it show up in the Genre view, click a button in the Genre view so it is selected, then right click the selected button. A window dialog will open asking you to choose which of the tags you'd like associated with that specific Genre button. You are limited to the 15 Genre buttons.

Once all your media is tagged and in place, simply use the search option by clicking into the Text field, and typing your search term. It will immediately display all media related to that particular search word or words. If you don't want to use a search and simply want to see for instance, all Cutaway shots, select the Cutaway button in the Media Manager. All files tagged as cutaways will be displayed.

One thing to note about the Media Manager; because of the way it is implemented and uses Windows resources, it can slow down your initial boot time of Vegas. If you know you're not going to use it in a session, turn it off for faster boot speeds and to reduce the load on your processor.

Saved Paths:
Vegas 6 allows you to save a project file path when you render out a file, allowing you to right click a rendered AVI file and reopen the ORIGINAL veg file used to create the project. It's only a path; if you've deleted the veg file, having this information in the video stream won't help you very much.

When you render a file, the information relating to where the original veg file lives is preserved in the file as metadata. Remember, you MUST still have the media and veg file on your computer in order to open this.

To recall the veg file/project, right click the media on the Vegas timeline, and choose "Edit Source Project" and Vegas will open the file in a new instance of Vegas. You'll be able to make any desired changes, and re-render the file.
Hint: After opening the new instance of Vegas, place the rendered file in the timeline of the original project at the top, and only render the new segments into the rendered file. This will save a lot of render time.

DVI Monitoring:

What's this all about? It's a terrific feature for all users of Vegas, but one of particular import for those editing HDV or HD on the Vegas 6 Timeline. This allows you to select a second, third, or other monitor to be used to monitor full screen video, at a high resolution or full resolution (depending on your monitor's capabilities), just like an external broadcast monitor.

In Options/Preferences (or right click the track header), you'll notice a tab labeled Preview Devices. This allows you to decide if you'll be monitoring through a DeckLink® card, OHCI/1394 card, or to a secondary monitor.  In this illustration taken from my laptop, no secondary monitor is available. Vegas will allow you to identify which monitor is your Display monitor. For viewing 1080i information, you'll need to have a monitor capable of 1900 x 1280 or more if you want full resolution. However, if you don't have a monitor that meets these requirements, no fear. Vegas will display and compensate for whatever lower resolution you might have. Further, Vegas now offers a deinterlace feature on the Display monitor, allowing you to view sharp, clean video on the second monitor. You can also use Color Management, and select one of several profiles. There are calibration tools available from third parties that will allow you to properly calibrate your monitor for video. Do the calibration, set your own properties, and save those properties as a color profile. Since Vegas can have its own color profile, you can also have a different color profile for your graphics, web, or other applications, and use a specific profile just for Vegas. Be sure to leave the "Recompress Edited Frames" checkbox selected.

Capture Tools and Hardware:
Vegas 6 can now capture with total support from the DeckLink cards from Blackmagic, as well as capturing HDV directly from the Vidcap application. Further, Vegas 6 comes with the CineForm ® codec installed, so you won't need to purchase this as a separate upgrade. Yes, it's an updated version of the  tools. However, keep in mind that the capture is capturing m2t files, and you'll want to either convert to , or use another method for conversion to edit such as the 4:2:2 YUV codec which is what the DeckLink card will require, or perhaps you'll convert to straight DV for your edit, and then replace the edits with the m2t files for HD rendering later on. This will provide a high quality. I'll submit that you might find the VASST Software tool named "GEARSHIFT" appropriately built for this conversion task. It can convert to any number of codecs, framerates, and a DV proxy for those editing on a slower computer, and with a one button click, replace all media with the HD stream, saving a lot of time, effort, and potential headaches.

One thing is certain; for a software-only application Vegas 6 is very, very fast to work with.

As mentioned previously, many of the improvements to Sony Vegas 6 are under the hood. You'll immediately notice significantly faster render times; even on slower, older machines. If you have a hopped up dual hyperthreaded machine or a multicore machine...hang on to your hat.
Keep in mind that single proc HT systems likely won't see any significant improvement, if any at all.
I decided early on to use Vegas 6 to edit and finish Victor Milt's 90 minute "Light It Right" DVD. Victor did the rough cut and some title work in Vegas 5, he shipped me the media and veg files for final work and render. I did all the work in Vegas 6, using the nested timelines feature to render the project together. Even in early beta builds, the zippier "feel" of the software was readily apparent. Being able to stack veg files on the timeline was an incredible timesaver, and as Victor updated sections of his files or created new files, I was able to import them to the timeline, or have the timeline up date as he worked and I worked on other files, without any need for rendering at any point. That said, when you drop a veg on the timeline, Vegas renders a file extended as an sfap0 file. This is a temporary file that acts like a proxy in the veg, displaying all frames, etc, while allowing you to sequence segments together. Once you have all your files on the Timeline, this is when you'll render for the first time, in most instances.

XDCam support:
Vegas 6 will offer XDCam support, simply drag the MXF files from the Explorer to the Timeline. You'll be able to edit the MXF files in real time on the timeline. This is a very sweet option for broadcasters moving to the XDCam format. This is a "soon to come" feature, but not available as of midnight, 4/17/05. Sony did show it functioning at NAB, so watch for this as a future update to the Vegas software.

This small tutorial overview doesn't cover all the points of what is new in Vegas, but it covers the majority of the ones that you'll immediately notice. Be sure to look around for some of the newer, smaller things such as the ability to display free storage space in the Temp folder, or the ability to ignore fact chunks when rendering wav files. If you decide to disable the Fact Chunk option, be sure to delete any existing sfap0 files that might be on the system.  I hope this window into what's new in Sony Vegas 6 software helps you get going quickly. Watch next for our updates on Sony DVD Architect 3.0!

Happy editing,

HDV:What You NEED to Know

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