I happen to use Adobe Premiere elements but I do understand this is the Sony Vegas forums :) :)

Cheers...

Yea but like you said that's as easy as anything in Vegas... but that's a HUGE waste of time. Plus what if I give myself 3 blank seconds and then decide, oh woops, it would be better if I had 3.5. Haha. Back to the drawing board.
 
In Sonar 8.5 you could Right-Click the video, Video Properties, and just simply change the start time. The start time option is still there in Sonar X3 but it's grayed out. It's like a tease.

polarbear
Yea but like you said that's as easy as anything in Vegas... but that's a HUGE waste of time. Plus what if I give myself 3 blank seconds and then decide, oh woops, it would be better if I had 3.5. Haha. Back to the drawing board.
 
In Sonar 8.5 you could Right-Click the video, Video Properties, and just simply change the start time. The start time option is still there in Sonar X3 but it's grayed out. It's like a tease.

 
Welp, that is why one should use a working procedure.  I have said this a million times on this forum, but I put a :10 start time on every video I work on.  (BTW Vegas does have cheap versions).  So many times i receive updated picture versions and the start (or roll up) time is different.  If you are not ready for changes in can be a big PITA.
 
I really like using Vegas to prepare picture for Sonar.  I really like creating streamers that let me know when music will start, stop and hit cues.  This allows me and other musicians to improvise to picture and hit everything. Tons of fun. Because I have an older, secondary computer to handle video rendering there is no down time.  If I want to change a start time or a streamer I can render a new version in minutes and still keep working in Sonar.
 
Don't tell my wife, but I have a blast making a living scoring to picture.  Sonar has so many positives i can overlook the Video issues by using Vegas.
 
BUT, if Sonar would add some video features like streamers and update staff view.......whew, life would be too good!
    

polarbear
In Sonar 8.5 you could Right-Click the video, Video Properties, and just simply change the start time. The start time option is still there in Sonar X3 but it's grayed out. It's like a tease.

It is grayed out because SONAR is configured by default to use the new Media Foundation engine. To restore the 8.5 behavior requires reverting SONAR to the DirectShow engine. I thought the link above explained this. For detailed instructions on how to run SONAR with the DirectShow engine see http://www.cakewalk.com/D...ayback.46.html#1643946

to Jimbo: If it was me I'd always leave some blank space at the beginning just in case, but these are paying clients. I don't want to bother them with that or accuse them of doing something wrong here, you know what I mean. And I'm just trying to save myself some time from having to fix it.
 
to Scook: Yea I tried that. I did exactly as it said and the option didn't un-gray. And I've read tons of comments from people that said changing to the DirectShow engine made Sonar more unstable for them. Also, I'm assuming there's a reason for using the new Media Foundation Engine by default... It must be better at everything else... except this haha.

Strange, I tried it before posting and setting VideoEngine=0 made the start time editable for me. The new engine supports a wider array of video formats but as Noel pointed out, it does not have the ability to alter start time. I do not believe the stability is better or worse than 8.5 when running the DirectShow engine.

Yea that's what I was wondering up above, maybe it works but only for certain video formats... In this particular project I was given an mp4, but of course every format seems to have a million possible options for how they were exported, and any number of those things could be making this mp4 not have the ability to be moved. It's just a shame... The video format support was so amazingly increased in Sonar X3(d i think it was), yet it's 2 steps forward 1 step back with now not being able to do something as simple as move the video around.
 
The funny thing is I won't even be exporting the video with my composition. I just export a wav at the end of the project and let them import it into their premire/finalcut project. So I seriously just need the video to not play at 0:00 and that's it. Seems so simple.
 
So for now I guess my only real option unless I want to load up Vegas/Premiere and create a new version of the video which will take forever with rendering time, is to just compose the score as perfectly as possible, then just remove the video altogether, move my composition back a few bars and compose an intro blindly.

My test used a wmv

polarbear
to Jimbo: If it was me I'd always leave some blank space at the beginning just in case, but these are paying clients. I don't want to bother them with that or accuse them of doing something wrong here, you know what I mean. And I'm just trying to save myself some time from having to fix it.
 

 
 
Correct...I never bother my clients or accuse them or have them do anything out of the ordinary.  I just say "get me your video"...whatever/however they are working.  I take their video and prepare it in Vegas.  I let Vegas handle any video issues.  It saves Tons of time. Sometimes there is blank space at the beginning, sometimes not,  rarely ever the same.  So I make sure there is exactly :10 before music starts and I have my streamers for Sonar.  I stay in close contact with the mixers or editors on the project.  I usually use a "2 beep" for sync.  If I'm working with an inexperienced mixer or video editor, I could drop my music back into the original Vegas file and make sure it matches the size of the original pic file.  i can send them a wav file or a high quality Quicktime file (for visual reference if needed)  with just music.  Usually I'm sending stems to be mixed in Protools.  An OMF file will be timestamped and drop my stems right into the proper place on the timeline.  Quick and easy....The 10-15 minutes i spend in Vegas ends up saving way more time and preventing many headaches.
         

Yea it's not that it's THAT big a hassle... But that's 10-15 minutes more than Right Click - Video Properties - Start Time 0:02:000. Done. Which is how it was in Sonar 8.5. Moving backwards in technology is always disappointing.