Newtek VT5

Product link: http://www.newtek.com/vt/index.php

How to Create Livesets for use in VT5

The most helpful explanation I came across on this topic was [this forum post]. I opted to install the Aura plugin and the included tutorial is extremely helpful for getting started.

Create a simple picture in picture using Aura

Here are the quick steps for creating an angled picture in picture view with blurred edges (from memory, may not be exactly right):

1. Open a new project in Aura
2. Name the first layer Input
3. Open the liveset brush creator (Filters>LiveSet>LiveSet Brush Creator)
4. Click on the Full Screen Layer button
5. Create a new layer and name it FX
6. In the brush generator set the size to what you want for your picture in picture window and then click Create Brush
7. Optionally if you want to crop the brush follow this steps first
   1. Change the view to only show 1 layer (= sign)
   2. Stamp the brush onto the blank layer
   3. Press the b key to enable the rectangle select tool
   4. Select the new cropped brush space you want to use
   5. Type shift-k to clear the layer
8. Open Filters>Motion>KeyFramer
9. Check the Preview box
10. Adjust parameters as needed (in this case the H A is changed to 45 degrees)
11. Click Apply Filter
12. Open the blur filter (Blut>Blur)
13. Configure the blur amount (2 in this case)
14. Click Apply Filter
15. Open the LiveSet Generator (Filters>LiveSet>LiveSet Generator
16. Set the Effects Warp Type to Complex (this is required to render the angled video I believe)
17. Name the scene and the shot
18. Click on Create LiveSet
19. Open VT5 and you will now be able to select the LiveSet and shot (the effects bus will display within the pip window

How to backup and restore user settings

This forum post describes the process which is handy if you want to do a clean install of the OS and VT5 for any reason:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showpost.php?p=989586&postcount=9

Encoding an h.264 .mp4 file

This is still open but so far it looks like a codec purchase is required to get this working.
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106290