Should I graduate from AVIDemux? Which older version of payware for Win7 ?

[awgie]

Your directions are great. But, still not idiot proof!

Touché.

That was the easy way to find your CPU, but it only does us any good if you have an OEM combination CPU/GPU (mine, for instance, is an E2-3800 CPU with HD 8280 graphics).

You could try using the AMD Driver Autodetect Utility to automatically identify your graphics card and select the latest drivers.

Otherwise you can try to find it manually. You will need to know the model of your graphics card to do this.

• Open Device Manager by pressing Windows+R to pop up the Run dialog, then type in devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
• Click (or double-click) on Display Adapters to expand it.
• The graphics card model number should appear under Display adapters​.

If you do find and install a newer driver for your card, it may make you (or it may automatically) uninstall Catalyst entirely, since it is the older version of the driver software, so the next part may be a moot point.

For making sure you do not have the SDK installed for Catalyst, yes, in Uninstall Programs, the AMD Catalyst Install Manager should give you two options: Uninstall or Change. If 'Change' does not give you the option to make sure the SDK is not there, then 'Uninstall' should give you the choice of either a complete uninstall or a custom uninstall. You would need to choose 'custom' and tell it to uninstall the SDK. If it does not show up as being installed (e.g. if it does not give you the option to remove it), you would simply cancel out of the uninstall process.

[GoodEnough]

Thanks for not giving up on me.

My device manager says my display adapter is:
ATI Radeon HD 4200

I installed the autoDetect program.
The downloaded filename was: radeon-crimson-relive-17.2.1-minimalsetup-170213_web
It never auto detected anything. It turned into a basic driver installer program.
So, I clicked uninstall, and got this list below.

I'm not sure what to do next.
Uninstall any of those items?
Update drivers from device manager?

[awgie]

Thanks for not giving up on me.

My device manager says my display adapter is:
ATI Radeon HD 4200

I installed the autoDetect program.
The downloaded filename was: radeon-crimson-relive-17.2.1-minimalsetup-170213_web
It never auto detected anything. It turned into a basic driver installer program.
So, I clicked uninstall, and got this list below.

I'm not sure what to do next.
Uninstall any of those items?
Update drivers from device manager?

It had to have detected your card, because that Crimson file is the installer for the newest version of the drivers - "minimalsetup" means that it's just the files necessary for installing the drivers, without all the bells and whistles. Minimal Setup takes a little over 300MB of your hard drive, as opposed to over 1GB if you install the full Radeon software package.

Can I assume you did not install it? If not, you may not need to.

Your screenshot shows the SDK as the first item. That is the one you need to uninstall. Once that is uninstalled, try running Vegas again.

[GoodEnough]

No, I didn't install anything.
I will try removing the SDK now. Thanks!

[GoodEnough]

Yes !!!!!!!!!

[GoodEnough]

Thanks JohnMeyer and AWGIE for getting me up and running.

I actually used AVIDemux last night to edit a 1 hour clip.
I was able to use [ and ] to mark, DEL, and arrows to skip around.
This made it very easy to edit, once I got the keystrokes down.

I also applied a contrast/brightness filter to the entire file.

I still am psyched to be trying out a commercial package.
First step is to learn both of those skills in Movie Studio

[johnmeyer]

I didn't do anything, but if you have questions about Vegas, I might be able to help.

[awgie]

I didn't do anything, but if you have questions about Vegas, I might be able to help.

You participated in the discussion. It may not seem like much to you, but when someone is frustrated and looking for answers, that's huge.

[GoodEnough]

Is there a Vegas specific subforum?
I have to force myself to try it this weekend.
It's too easy to want to get it done quick with AVIDemux!

[johnmeyer]

Magix has their own forum (they now own Vegas). Creative Cow also has an active Vegas forum. I don't think there is anything in this forum.

[awgie]

There's an editing forum on here, but it's not limited to only Vegas. Then again, the Magix forums aren't limited to only Vegas either. I haven't been on the Creative Cow forums, so I can't say anything about them.

[johnmeyer]

Here are links:

Magic Vegas Forum

Creative Cow Vegas Forum

DVInfo Vegas Forum

UK Video Editing Forum

[GoodEnough]

Vegas gives you dozens of ways to do the same thing. One way to do cuts only edits is to press "S" (for split) which will split the "event" (that's what each section of video or audio is called). Then scrub to where you want to end the edit (the J-K-L keys go backwards, stop, forward, and each time you press J or L the speed gets faster) and press "S" again. You now have an "event" on the timeline that you want to remove. Make sure to first enable "ripple editing" (there is an icon on the timeline) and also make sure that you tell it to ripple everything (i.e., all tracks, markers, etc.). Then, click on the video event and press DEL. Depending on what order you do things, the event may already be selected, in which case it is exactly the same number of button presses as what you use in AVIDemux. At worst, you'll have one extra mouse click to select the event. When you press Del, the event will be removed, and the events to the right of that event will all be moved to the left to fill in the gap.

User's Manual is useless garbage.

Can you do me a huge favor?
Can you open a sample media file, and write down EXACTLY what keystrokes you use to DELETE :10 to :20 ?

I literally mean everything you type.
I am having trouble using the keyboard to start/stop.
SPACE just starts at the beginning, for example. (Not PAUSE)

I want to
1) PLAY
2) SKIP to :10
3) MARK
4) SKIP to :20
5) MARK
6) DELETE

All with keyboard.

[GoodEnough]

I figured out how to use Split method.
I use JKL to navigate quickly, and press "S".
I also see that I can press "S" while the video is running.

However, I need to go back and reselect the split section with a mouse and then press DEL.
Is there a quicker way to delete that last section without using the mouse?

[GoodEnough]

Also, is Split can't delete without a mouse, is there an alternate method entirely?

Like, can I MARK A and MARK B, and then just press DEL ?
I did this in AVIDemux

[GoodEnough]

How do I delete a selection?

I pressed I and O to mark the start and end.
I see the little YELLOW flags. on the timeline.
When I press DEL, the entire video is gone.

Is the SELECTION the entire VIDEO TRACK?
Or is it the section marked by I & O ?
The ENTIRE VIDEO is still highlighted by the green rectangle.

What is the point of I & O ?

[awgie]

How do I delete a selection?

I pressed I and O to mark the start and end.
I see the little YELLOW flags. on the timeline.
When I press DEL, the entire video is gone.

Is the SELECTION the entire VIDEO TRACK?
Or is it the section marked by I & O ?
The ENTIRE VIDEO is still highlighted by the green rectangle.

I understand your frustration. Yes, AviDemux is simpler to use, but that's because it's much more limited in what it can do. It's a trade-off.

I am having trouble using the keyboard to start/stop.
SPACE just starts at the beginning, for example. (Not PAUSE)

I want to
1) PLAY
2) SKIP to :10
3) MARK
4) SKIP to :20
5) MARK
6) DELETE

All with keyboard.

If you haven't already, have a look at the Keyboard Shortcuts under the Help Menu. If you pressed F1 to open up Help, they're found under Advanced Edit Mode, at the bottom of the list, whereas selecting Keyboard Shortcuts under the Help Menu takes you directly to them.

An all-important keystroke to remember is Alt+0 (zero). It always puts the focus back on the timeline. That's crucial because the keystrokes below only work when the focus is on the timeline.

1) There is an option on the General tab in Preferences to make the Space Bar act as Play/Pause instead of Play/Stop. In my opinion, that should have been the default setting, but it's not.

2/4) Using Ctrl-G you can jump to a specific time. It works like Ctrl-T in AviDemux, except you can specify the time down to single frames/thousands (depending on the timeline format - right click on the time grid at the top of the timeline to change the time display format).
To jump right and left, use PgUp and PgDn. It jumps to the prev/next grid mark (the vertical dotted lines in the timeline), so how much it jumps depends on your zoom level.
Use the Up & Down arrows to change the zoom level (centered on the current cursor position). The Right and Left arrows move right and left by smaller amounts, but again, how much depends on the zoom level.
Alt-Right and Alt-Left move right and left by a single video frame, regardless of the zoom level.

You can also hold down the Shift key while pressing any of these to affect the selection.

3/5) You can still mark the start (in) and end (out) using I & O.
Once you've set the start and end with I & O, that area marked off with the yellow flags is called the "loop region". It is not a "selection" yet. So any actions you take are taken on the active "event(s)" - the segment(s) with the highlighted outline.
Pressing Shift+Q selects the loop region (that's the critical keystroke you were missing). You can then see the different background highlighting that region across all the tracks.
(Creating a loop region is just one method of creating a selection. Alternately, use Shift with the keys in step 2 to create a selection.)

6) Once you have created the actual selection, then pressing Delete will cut out only the selection (but still only acting on the active events), and effectively splits the remaining video into separate events at that point.

Note: If you have Auto-Ripple turned off (using the little Config button at the bottom of the screen), Delete will only remove the selection, but will not collapse the remaining video in on itself. This will become useful when you're doing your multi-cam editing, because you want to remove a chunk of the "top" camera source, while keeping the whole video in sync.

You may also find it useful to know that when the focus is on the timeline, the Mouse Wheel changes the zoom level. Shift+Mouse Wheel pans the timeline right and left without changing the cursor position. Ctrl+Mouse Wheel scrolls the track list up and down.

[GoodEnough]

Thanks awgie, I'll try that.

I got pretty fast with the SPLIT

Imagine me cutting up a baseball game.
Cutting out dead space between the action.

S: Marks the start of action.

I watch until point #1 ends.

S: Marks end of clip #1. (I don't even stop video here!)
Now, this next segment is dead space between points.
I use JKL to fine tune until next point begins.

S: Marks start of point #2

HERE is where I now need to use mouse to DEL the prior segment of filler between points #1 & #2.
That is my only gripe. Any way around that? If so, Split + JKL works very quickly

[GoodEnough]

Your SHIFT-Q trick did not work with IO
I clicked I and O to mark a yellow section.
Pressing SHIFT-Q does nothing that I can see.
DEL also did nothing.

I am thinking loop regions created by IO are not meant for editing,
and are just for saving a portion of the media.

Trying to use IO for chopping up the file seems to be a misuse of the feature.
ie: Loops are not meant for deleting in the first place.

I will stick with the Split/JKL method.
I just hate using the mouse.

[johnmeyer]

The first thing you need to know is that the default behavior is for the space bar to return the play head to the position when you started playing. If instead you want to have the play head stop at the current position, press the Enter key instead.

When using JKL, there are actually two modes. The first is probably the one you are using: L and J go forward and backwards, at normal playback speed, and K stops. Once playing, if you keep pressing the L or J key (whichever one you just pressed), the playback gets faster and faster. It maxes out at 20x. If you started by pressing the L key (forward) and then press the K key, the video immediately starts playing backwards (and vice versa).

However, if you first press and hold K and then press L or J, you get a totally different behavior. In this mode, you start out at a really slow speed (I think it is about 1/8 speed). Then, each time you press the same key (L or J), the speed gets faster, but very, very gradually. This is quite useful when you are hunting for a specific frame. Also, while in this mode, if you press the key to go in the opposite direction (e.g., pressing J after pressing L) the video does not reverse, but instead simply plays more slowly.

You most definitely need to become familiar with the keyboard shortcuts. I think you will find all sorts of amazing ways to speed things up. I don't think any editing program ever made (including Avid) can let you edit as quickly as Vegas.

If you have specific, individual questions, I'd be happy to answer them. However, I am no substitute for a tutorial, and I suggest you look at YouTube and elsewhere for some amazing tutorials. Here is a really short one that talks about trimming. Did you know Vegas has a trimmer? Many people like the workflow of using the trimmer. I never liked it, but as I said in my first post, there are at least half a dozen ways to do each basic editing function in Vegas, and which one works best for you will depend a lot on what other programs you have used and how your brain is wired.

Sony Vegas Pro 9 new Edit Tools

If you have Vegas Pro, you can use my various scripts to speed up editing. For instance, I created a script that will delete the video (and associated audio) from the current position to the beginning of the event. The event doe not need to first be selected. This is actually really important because, if you have not yet found out, it is really important in Vegas to make sure you know which track(s) is selected and which event(s) is selected before taking action. If something else besides the current event is selected, and you press the Del key, both the event you are looking at, as well as the event somewhere else, will be deleted. Fortunately, if you click on any event, without holding either the Ctrl or Shift key, that action will automatically de-select all other events on all other timelines. The beauty of my scripts are that they eliminate several clicks and keyboard shortcuts, and once each script is assigned to a key, all I have to do is navigate to where I want the video to start, press the key, and immediately everything to the left of the current play head position is deleted, and everything to the right of that event is rippled to the left to close the gap.

The other thing you need to do is understand how ripple editing works. In general, you should keep ripple editing turned off. When you need it, temporarily enable it by pressing Ctrl-L. The rest of the time, you can ripple by pressing either "F" or Ctrl-F immediately after you have deleted an event. This will cause everything to the right of the edit to move to the left.

I have other scripts as well, including one that will delete the entire event currently under the cursor without having to first select anything.

[johnmeyer]

A few links that might be useful:


New Scripts from John Meyer

Cuts-only editing scripts

[GoodEnough]

john,
I quickly figured out that holding J/K allows for fast skipping. Totally have that down.
The ONLY issue is having to use the mouse to select the last split so I can DEL it.
I have pressed "S" for the second time. I press "K" to stop. Now, I need to use the mouse to select the last split.
This is so basic, and I can not believe a pro software doesn't have this feature.
Using the mouse is an embarrassment, if they did not build around that. How can I get around that?

[GoodEnough]

I can not run scripts. I am using the $25 basic version.

[GoodEnough]

Every edit I make required ripple.
When I delete a segment, I do not want a gap.
I want the gap to be eliminated.

[GoodEnough]

After editing, I noticed my audio track was different. Quieter.
It was not the identical copied audio.
AVIDemux gives an option to copy the audio and not render it again.
Does Vegas have this option?

[awgie]

Your SHIFT-Q trick did not work with IO
I clicked I and O to mark a yellow section.
Pressing SHIFT-Q does nothing that I can see.
DEL also did nothing.

I am thinking loop regions created by IO are not meant for editing,
and are just for saving a portion of the media.

Trying to use IO for chopping up the file seems to be a misuse of the feature.
ie: Loops are not meant for deleting in the first place.

I will stick with the Split/JKL method.
I just hate using the mouse.

I & O are short for In and Out. Those are the same terms that have been used for setting edit points since back in the early '80s when editing videotape in a studio – probably even farther back than that, but that's when I started editing video. The edit points were used to cut out sections of the video when copying from one tape to another. They told the recorder when to start and stop recording. So no, that is not a misuse of the feature. It is exactly what the feature is meant for.

I live for keyboard shortcuts. Using the mouse aggravates my carpal tunnel. So I have been using keyboard shortcuts since I started using computers 30 years ago, and since I started using Movie Studio over ten years ago. But I have only ever used the Platinum edition of Movie Studio, not the Basic edition. And I can assure you that – in Platinum – I, O, Shift+Q, & Delete works perfectly for removing sections of a video.

According to their website, Basic does not have "keyboard editing mode". I couldn't find exactly what that entails – what keyboard shortcuts are different, etc. – but that is one reason I suggested that you review the Keyboard Shortcuts in Help. Also why you should have taken John's advice and installed the Demo before actually spending money on it. If it turns out you need to have Platinum in order to get all the keyboard shortcuts you need, then you've wasted $25 buying the Basic version.



Take a look under the Edit > Select Menu, and see if it shows "Select Loop Region" with a keyboard shortcut listed next to it. If not, then you could still try using Shift + the navigation keys I mentioned in my last post (PgUp, PgDn, etc.) to create a selection.

[GoodEnough]

Under Edit, all I see are:

Select All
--------------
Loop Playback
------------
Selection Start
Selection End

[GoodEnough]

How did you do a screen capture while the menu was displayed?
Pressing CTRL+ALT+PRTSCR clears the menu.

[GoodEnough]

I am now curious, even without the keyboard,
the basic version does NOT allow me to "select loop region"
If that feature does not even exist in the menu,
then clearly selecting the loop is not the main reason for marking a loop in the first place.
Otherwise, why would they have IO yee no ability to select it ?

[johnmeyer]

Pressing the backspace key repeatedly will let you go back to the previous five "loop selections."