Sonic Foundry Vegas Video

Release Notes

February 2002

Copyright © 2002 Sonic Foundry, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sonic Foundry, Inc. may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Sonic Foundry, Inc., the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

Contents

This document contains information on the following topics:

1.0 Welcome

2.0 What's New

3.0 Known Issues

4.0 System Requirements

5.0 Installation

6.0 Vegas User Manual

7.0 Demos

8.0 Contacting Sonic Foundry, Inc.

Applicable to boxed products only. If you've purchased a downloadable product, Adobe Acrobat (PDF) versions of product documentation and product demos are available at www.sonicfoundry.com/download/.

1.0 Welcome

Thank you for choosing Sonic Foundry Vegas. This document contains information about installing and using Vegas on your computer.

2.0 What's New

What's new in version 3.0

We've added many new features to Vegas Video 3.0.

You'll find information about Vegas' new features in the online help and manual. In the online help, select the Contents tab. Double-click the Introduction book to open it and click the What's New in Vegas 3.0 topic. This topic lists many of the new features and provides links to the appropriate help topics.

New productivity enhancement features:

• DV batch capture, batch print-to-tape, clip detection, and project recapture

• Project trimming/media consolidation

• Intelligent rendering

• Dynamic RAM Previews

• Dual-processor DV rendering support

• Print-to-tape from the timeline

• Create and edit Windows Media 8 (.wmv, wma) files, with Web metadata including closed captioning

• On-the-fly web metadata arrangement (import existing script copy for streaming media closed captioning and place caption cues while playing)

• Import/export Web commands in XML database format

• Still-image sequence import with alpha channel support

• Timecode burn filter for visual of stamping project timecode — provide streaming media client-review copies

• Video CD and multimedia CD burning

• Red Book CD layout and burning complete with printable PQ lists, ISRC and UPC codes. Import existing CD Architect projects.

• Track-level video keyframe management

• Autosave/crash recovery tools

• CD audio extraction

• TWAIN support - use your scanner or digital camera as a media source

• JKL keyboard scrub, and linear timeline scrub

• Video thumbnail support

• Capture/save still image from timeline

• Enhanced event grouping

• Histogram views

• Extended control over default track properties

0. New output quality enhancement features:

• New Sonic Foundry DV codec

• New MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding tools

• Create and edit Windows Media 8 (.wmv) files

• Smooth audio and video envelopes: a whole new sound and look

• Smooth temporal and spatial keyframe control for motion and crop effects

• Nine new video overlay modes for expanded compositing control

• Five audio pan models, including constant power balance

• Mono and channel swap/combine support for stereo audio files

• Audio phase inversion for tracks and events

• Frame quantize

• Apply interlace filter

• Framerate undersampling (strobing)

• New titling and credit roll tools for pristine video text

• New video effects: Lens Flare, Light Rays, Border, Film FX, Linear and Radial Blur, Mirror, Timecode Burn, and more

• New image-correction filters: Color Curves, Black Restore, Levels, Unsharp Mask, and more

• Voice-optimized timestretching

0. Notable changes/fixes in 3.0a

• Vegas can now burn PAL VideoCDs.

• Vegas now supports USB or IEEE-1394 (FireWire) CD recorders when using Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

• Numerous Video Capture changes have also been implemented. Please see your Video Capture readme.

• An error that caused the last two frames of Windows Media files to be truncated has been fixed.

• Fixed variable bit rate, constant bit rate, progressive-scan, and color level accuracy bugs in MPEG-2 plug-in.

• A bug that caused MPEG-1 files containing black frames to crash the Media Pool has been resolved.

• Sample rates are now editable when creating custom encoding templates for .wav and .avi files.

• Apply Non-Real Time Event FX will not work correctly for monaural files.

• A bug that caused Vegas to crash if you adjusted an Assignable FX input fader when multiple busses and assignable effects controls selected has been fixed.

• Left and right arrow keys now move by one pixel and land on a frame boundary. If you hold Alt, arrow keys will move by single frames.

• Shift+Q now selects the loop region.

0. 3.0 Known Issues

0. Red Book CD Authoring

0. On some computers running Windows XP, Vegas is unable to create Red Book CDs using the PlexWriter 24/10/40A CD burner. We are working with Plextor to resolve the issue.

0. MPEG file encoding

0. When you render separate audio and video streams, the encoder will create an .m1v (MPEG-1) or .m2v (MPEG-2) file for the video stream and an .mpa file for the audio stream. However, the rendering progress dialog will report that an .mpg file is being created.

0. When rendering separate audio and video streams, Vegas will append a four-digit suffix to the file name if the target file exists. If the encoder exceeds [filename]9999.m2v or [filename]9999.mpa, encoding will fail and notify you that a file with the name already exists.

0. For more information about the MPEG templates available in Vegas, please see “Rendering MPEG Files” in the online help.

0. Project compatibility

0. Vegas 3.0 can open projects you created in previous versions of Vegas. However, previous versions of Vegas Video cannot open Vegas 3.0 projects. If you need to work with a previous version of Vegas, please work with a copy of your project or use the Save As command to save your Vegas 3.0 project with a unique name.

0. Vegas Video 3.0 can also open your Sonic Foundry VideoFactory 1.0 and 2.0 projects.

0. Vegas and Pixelan StepMotion and StepTime plug-ins

0. If you are using the PixelanStepMotion or StepTime plug-ins, it is recommended that you set the Dynamic RAM Preview Max setting on the Video Preferences tab 0. This will ensure more accurate previews when using these specialized filters. Rendering is not affected when Dynamic RAM Preview is enabled.

0. Downloading QuickTime for Windows

0. You'll need to install QuickTime for Windows in order to use TIFF files and render MOV files. Vegas does not include the QuickTime installer. This can be downloaded free of charge from Apple Computer, Inc. at http://www.apple.com.

0. Important: Make sure you download and install the QuickTime Authoring Components.

0. Windows Media Player and Real Player
   Sonic Foundry Vegas includes the many new encoding formats from Real and Microsoft. It is recommended that you update to the most current versions of Windows Media Player (www.microsoft.com), and Real Player (www.real.com) for optimal file playback compatibility.
   

0. File size limitations (FAT32 and NTFS disk drives)

0. AVI files larger than 2GB are supported by the OpenDML file standard, (also called "ODML" or "AVI version 2.0"). This means Vegas is limited only by your operating system and/or file system (how your drives are formatted).

• Drives formatted as FAT32 under Windows 98SE or Me allow files of up to 4GB.

• Drives formatted as NTFS under Windows 2000 and XP do not have a 4GB limit.

0. By default, Vegas creates OpenDML-compatible files. This allows you to render large AVI file sizes. Some other applications may not be ODML compatible and may not be able to use these files. To change the default behavior, go to the File menu, choose Render As and click the Custom button. Then, on the Video tab, clear the Create an OpenDML (AVI version 2.0) compatible file check box.

0. Video Capture

0. Sonic Foundry Video Capture is automatically installed with Vegas. You can start Video Capture from the Media Pool or File menu.

0. Sony Computer and Video Capture

0. Some Sony computers with built in IEEE-1394 i-Link DV use a custom Sony DV driver that will need to be updated in order to get full functionality when using the Sonic Foundry Video Capture tool. Running the utility "SFSony.exe", which is included in the Extras folder on the CD or available at www.sonicfoundry.com/download/step2.asp?DID=223 will fix the problem. You can also use this utility to restore your original Sony settings.

0. 4.0 System Requirements

0. The following lists the minimum system requirements for using Sonic Foundry Vegas:

• Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP

• 400 MHz processor

• Windows-compatible sound card

• OHCI-compliant, IEEE-1394 DV card (for DV capture and print-to-tape_

• 40MB available hard disk space for installation

• 128MB RAM

• 7200 RPM hard drive or faster

• Internet Explorer 4 or later (IE 5 installer included on CD)

• DirectX 8.0 (Included on CD)

5.0 Installation


The install utility, VegasVideo3Install.exe, creates any necessary folders and copies all files required by Vegas to your computer.

Double-click the file after downloading, and follow the on-screen prompts to install the appropriate version of Vegas for your computer.

Vegas Video 3.0 can be installed without removing existing Vegas Video 2.0 installations.

6.0 Vegas User Manual


Included on the Vegas CD is a complete Vegas User Manual in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. The Acrobat format allows easy printing of the text, should you need a hard copy. The manual is located in the Manuals folder on the CD.

Manuals can also be downloaded from www.sonicfoundry.com/download

Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader

In order to view the manual, you will need to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader. It has been included on the CD in the Extras folder for your convenience. To install Acrobat Reader, follow these steps:

Place the Vegas CD in the drive. AutoPlay launches an installation menu.

0. Note: If you have disabled the CD-ROM AutoPlay feature, click the Start button and choose Run. Type D:\Extras\Acrobat Reader 4.0\English\ar40eng.exe, where D is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

Choose Browse, and then browse to the D:\Extras\Acrobat Reader 4.0\English\ folder.

Double-click the ar40eng.exe icon and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

You can also download Adobe Acrobat Reader from www.sonicfoundry.com/download/step2.asp?DID=101

7.0 Demos


Your installation CD-ROM includes demo versions of other select products available from Sonic Foundry. To install a demo, run the main setup program on the root of the Vegas CD and choose Product Demos from the Install screen. Follow the links for the demo you want to install.

If you would like any more information or demos of other products from Sonic Foundry, please visit our Web site (www.sonicfoundry.com). You will always find the latest technical information, demos, and product announcements from Sonic Foundry there.

Commercial distribution of the Sonic Foundry demos requires written permission from Sonic Foundry.

8.0 Contacting Sonic Foundry, Inc.

Sonic Foundry can be contacted in the following ways:

Sonic Foundry, Inc.

1617 Sherman Ave.

Madison, Wisconsin 53704

USA

Customer Service is available to help you with pre-purchase questions, order processing, and registration/installation issues.

• ­For a detailed list of Customer Service options, we encourage you to visit www.sonicfoundry.com.

• Telephone assistance during normal office hours:

0. • 1-800-577-6642 (toll-free) in US, Canada, and Virgin Islands.

0. • [phone] (toll-free) in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK, Netherlands, and Japan.

0. • [phone] for all other countries.

• E-mail: [e-mail].

• Fax: [phone].

0. Technical Support:

• For a detailed list of Technical Support options, we encourage you to visit www.sonicfoundry.com/support or call 608-256-5555.

• The full version of Vegas Audio and Vegas Video include 60 days of complimentary phone support. For your complimentary support, please call 608-204-7704. Your complimentary support begins the day you register your product, and registration is required to obtain support.

• E-mail: [e-mail].

• Fax: [phone].

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