I'll take a different tack here. It's quite possible that the jagginess you're seeing is a part of the render to DV25 (which has to be done to output over firewire to your DV camera).

You may want to look for other ways to output a file to composite or component. For instance, you can use some of the black magic design cards to output an analog signal. In that scenario I suppose you'd use one of the free BMD codecs in vegas to render a compatible file, then you'd go outside of Vegas and use the BMD utility to output the file through their card to tape.

The point here is to not go back to DV25 because it'll degrade your titles and other crisp graphic elements.

A problem with the BMD scenario is that, while these will work in a 33MHz PCI slot, they really should be in a 66MHz PCI slot. This also implies that the cards must be pretty long so you'd need to have enough clearance in your chassis.

I'm sure there are other scenarios. For instance, the convergent design box promises to support an uncompressed stream over 1394 "real soon". When that time comes you'd have a nice way of printing to tape without going back down to the DV25 format.

Don't take these ideas as the only ways to skin the cat. They're just ideas.

Rob Mack

Rob,
Are you saying that the only output that Vegas makes over Firewire is DV25?

That seems kind of crazy, if they're saying that they are a professional editor.

Dave

ouch

The Convergent Design SD-Connect can output component video from Vegas. It is an external video converter that converts firewire DV to/from analong component, composite, s-video, or SDI and analog, aes/ebu, or embedded SDI audio. It features 12 bit A/D and D/A converters for the video, which supports full 10 bit quality. SD-Connect also has RS-422 tape deck control with frame accurate insert/assemble edits.
We are working on uncompressed 8 bit/10 bit video/audio support over 1394 with Vegas. It should be complete within a couple of months. We currently have video/audio capture and playback on the PC in 8 bits uncompressed.
SD-Connect auto switches between capture and playback when using Vegas. When you open up a capture window, it switches to capture, when you move through the timeline, it switches to playback automatically.
If you would like more information or an evaluation please contact me.
Be sure to look at our website for more information.
John Schell
Convergent Design Inc.
john @ convergent-design.com
http://www.convergent-design.com

The external preview has two aspects that affect picture quality: the Vegas preview resolution button (i.e. draft, preview, good best) - big afffect, and the D-A converter device used to output the IEEE 1394 signal your monitor - smaller affect. Using different cameras for D-A pass through conversion will result in different quality pictures as the internal cameral algorithm determines this process. I asked this same question on another forum, and for best exernal picture quality the answer came back to use SONY DV cameras, and CANOPUS ADVC conversion devices. I chose the CANOPUS ADVC 100 device to a JVC TM-H150C external monitor via S-Video connection with good results. The choice of CANOPUS ADVC converter with component connections is very expensive.

The external picture quality is sometimes confused with high resolution preview with less than full frame rate playback on video clips with multiple layers and effects or slower speed computers.

Hope this information helps.