how to preview my video on vegas on a tv to test colors?

I haven't had too much luck with TV output from video cards (not counting DVI, HDMI, or VGA), so I use the proven method of firewire output.

I'm not sure if it works in HD with a HDV camera, but you can get a good SD color rendition by plugging a DV camera in via firewire and output from the camera to the TV using s-video or composite. After it's all hooked up and the camera is set to playback mode, go to vegas's "preview device properties", set the output to "IEEE1394 Device" or similar, hit ok/close. Next, on your video preview window turn on "preview on external monitor" and scrub through your timeline, and it should show up on the TV. If it's a 16:9 project and you have a 4:3 TV, you can force the "preview device" settings to always output the correct format of your TV (mine is NTSC DV), which letterboxes widescreen projects on the television in my case.
 
I use a Canopus ADVC100 to route the output to a TV. Connected via firewire to the PC and the output RCA plugs of the Canopus to the TV.
 
I prefer the firewire method as above - that gives a more reliable look at what the output will really look like.
 
Hi Clang Hi Harold Hi Knox

I do not have a campus or something similiar..

So i will test today the tipp of knox and clang.

I'm using a Sony HDR-XR500 and i have a Firewire Port on my pc end cam.

I will test it!!! :)

Thanky you all guys!
 
I could not test it yeat, but i have another question:

can i trust the result (colors) on the tv? if i go through my cam?
 
The camera makes no difference in this case, it's only the accuracy of the TV that's plugged in. Because of that, you can get a really cheap camera and use it for this purpose and to save the heads of your good cam when capturing tapes. You can try to calibrate the tv a little bit by outputting bars from your computer, but your best bet is using an known accurately calibrated broadcast monitor. In my own experience, the basic tv I have plugged in lets me know how it will look on the average person's television compared to my computer screen.
 
Hi Knox,

how to do this?
calibrate the tv a little bit by outputting bars from your computer,
 
Calibrating displays is a complete art and science in itself with its own hardware and software following, so keep in mind that the TV won't be spot on for critical color-correction, but is more of a reference for the averge person's TV, so don't expect miriacles.

The general idea is to go to vegas's "media generators" window and under "Test Patterns" drop SMPTE NTSC bars into the timeline and adjust the settings on your TV to produce a good image.
 
Hi Knox, Hi Everyboy

i think its a good idea to use a consumer tv because 99% of people have a consumer tv at home.

And i dont need Hollywood Quality :=) But i will send my music clips and films to tv senders.

i found the calibration bars in vegas.

i can see it on the tv over hdmi perfectly.

But now i dont know how to use this template. What should i exactly do now with this template on the tv and my tv settings?

Thank you all for your support :bath:
 
Hi David, Hi Everybody,

please confirm if i have understand..

1) Im living in Europe, so i use the PAL Bars in Vegas

2)
  1. Turn color, contrast and brightness all the way down.
  2. Turn up brightness until you see the black bar just start to light up.
  3. Turn up contrast until the bars display an even grayscale - not including the 100% white bar. This bar should not be glowing (turn up until the white bar doesn't get brighter then pull back a bit).
  4. Turn up color until the red bar is fully red but not glowing. On monitors with "blue-only" the 3 bars to the right should be equal shades of blue.
  5. Test and maybe fine-tune using a real picture you know has full color information and dynamics. This means good saturation, blacks, whites, low and high mid-tones.
And thats it for calibrating my TV? Can i trust than the colors there?

Thank you
 
You will be in a better position than you would be just using the computer monitor. Again, a real, professional production monitor, calibrated often, is what you really need to be sure.

Remember, turn off any auto settings that you can.
 
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