HUGE sony vegas problem!

[z3rosama]

First off, I'm using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0.

Heres what I'm trying to do. Take clips from Vampire Knight episodes (that I have in both .mpg4 and .avi) and make an amv. Simple, huh? Well, when i put clips together and press play, vegas freezes. After a minute or two, it'll recover. I've been using different episodes, different formats, and everything freezes on me all the time! ....windows movie maker is looking good at THIS point -__-''

My computer specs: 2gigs of RAM, 1.86GHz processor, Windows Vista 32-bit. While running Sony vegas, NO other programs are open, so it SHOULD run pretty damn fast, eh?!

I doubt the problem is my computer. So, whats up with my videos? Should I not be using .mpg4 or .avi? If not, what should I convert them to? Also, I'm cutting clips from each episode which is 23 or so minutes long. Does the length of the overall video matter? I haven't been able to construct ANY amvs and this constant freezing is really aggrivating. Hopefully someone knows something I don't! Please help!

[Vivaldi]

While avi is probably best, you have to remember that avi and mp4 are simply containers, and the meat of the problem is usually with the codec. do you know what the codec is for the avi version? (right-click>properties>summary>video compression) Is should be a lossless codec, like lagirith or huffYUV, rather than a lossy on like Xvid or DivX. (Or h264)

[Kariudo]

first, the obligatory "you should be using dvds for footage"
yeah, use dvds (when there actually are dvds)

next,
(that's a link, you should read it)
same thing applies for .mp4 files

to make clips work, read the new eadfag
the amvapp v3 has everything that you'll need to re-encode your footage.
Yes, the amvapp tests will fail (since you're using vista)...just ignore it and continue on as if nothing had happened

last, but not least
losslessly encoded video footage (with something like huffyuv or lagarith) is hueg liek xbox (~1GB for 3 minutes of video IIRC)
to work around the large filesizes, it is recommended that you make lossless clips instead of encoding entire episodes

open the video file in virtualdub mod go to video->compression->Huffyuv
then go to file->save

Ways of saving file space

use those buttons to mark the beginning and the end of the "clips" you want to use so you can save file space.

also go to streams->streams list->disable stream to disable the audio and save even more file space.

[z3rosama]

Okay, so I read the DO NOT USE XVID/DIXV thing, and I understand.

Now, I've been trying to convert my .avi files into Huffyuv AND M-JPEG using Magic Video Converter, and it won't work! Either I get audio only, or nothing at all.... Just black nothingness. So I must ask MORE n00b questions. Should I convert to Huffyuz or m-jpeg? (m-jpeg seems better....) Why is my conversion failing? Should I be using magic video converter? do I need a certian codec?

basically, I'm lost in a sea of WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!??! XD

[mirkosp]

Should I convert to Huffyuz or m-jpeg? (m-jpeg seems better....) Why is my conversion failing? Should I be using magic video converter? do I need a certian codec?

to make clips work, read the new eadfag
the amvapp v3 has everything that you'll need to re-encode your footage.
Yes, the amvapp tests will fail (since you're using vista)...just ignore it and continue on as if nothing had happened

Most of the other question that might rise should be already answered within that guide, which does tell a lot of stuff. If, after reading the guide, you still encounter problems, or if you weren't able to understand some parts of the guide, feel free to ask.

[mirkosp]

Oh, forgot, about the codecs: I personally think that you should use huffyuv or lagarith, actually. MJPEG, while fast for editing, terribly kills the quality, so you'd need to bait and switch the clips once finished the editing (in the avtechbeta guide it's said what bait and switch is, if you're interested).

[z3rosama]

Hah, i'm such a noob. Well, I'm good at editing footage, but I'm terrible at knowing what type of footage to use. It looks like I should be using Hufyuv, and I'll try that out. My only problem now is learning how to convert it to that format. I've never really converted anything before O__< And that guide is a bit too technical for me. It goes WOOOOOSH over my head D:

Okay, so I installed the AMV app, now all I need to do is figure out how to convert my video!
sorry for all the questions X__X

[Kariudo]

you'll be using virtualdub (or virtualdubmod...doesn't really matter which) for this.

here's the page about vdubmod in that guide:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... ubmod.html

but in a nutshell...
-open vdubmod
-open the footage you want to re-encode (you can drag and drop, or open from file->open)
(this is the time where you make clips, if you're making clips)
-go to file->save as
-for compression, click the "change" button
-in the window that pops up, look for Huffyuv or Lagarith (both are lossless, Lagarith gives -you a slightly smaller file and works really well with Vegas) and click to highlight it
-press ok
-enter a file name and press save

you may need to use avisynth to get the .mp4 footage into vdubmod, in that case just open notepad and type

Code: Select all

DirectShowSource("[path to your file].mp4")

and then save as "import.avs"
you don't need to do anything to the settings for notepad, just add ".avs" to the end of your file name

if you had a file on your desktop that you wanted to open this way...the path would look like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Desktop\some_file_name.mp4

then drag and drop your newly created .avs file into vdubmod

[z3rosama]

Thanks so much Kariudo for explaining it so that I can get it
that was easy

[Kariudo]

no problem. It can be intimidating at first, but it's extremely useful.