MGJP (Motion jpeg) support?

[DammitJanet]

When I try to drag a file of this nature into Vegas, all I get is an audio track. I assume it's not compatible with Vegas...right?

That should have said MJPG.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

The update of Vegas Movie Studio/Platinum 8 that was released today has added MJPEG support when they are encoded inside an .avi container:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=541138&Replies=0
(check the release notes)

[David Jimerson]

I've never had a problem playing an MJPEG Quicktime in Vegas.

[plainman007]

David > is mjpeg possible only in an mov container or any other type of wrapper too. Also what about the jpeg2000 file type. Is this supported by Vegas ? If so can you shed some light if Jpeg2000 is superior in quality to mpeg2, wmv9 and other delivery file types used for local playback ?

[David Jimerson]

I've only used Quicktime MJPEGs, but they exist in AVI wrappers, too. Never used one.

As far as I know, JPEG2000 is supported, again in QT. Superior in what way?

[plainman007]

David > As i meantioned, superior in quality. Is Jpeg2000 more efficient when it comes to size versus quality comparision with mpeg2 and wmv hd. And is Jpeg2000 a codec ?

[David Jimerson]

"Quality" tends to mean different things to different people. If you mean a better filesize ratio, it should be better than MPEG-2, but probably not better than WMV.

[plainman007]

David > Not worried about size. By quality i meant in terms of picture quality (clarity with less artifacts/noise). In terms of picture clarity does Jpeg2000 do better than Mpeg2 or Wmv9 hd ?

[David Jimerson]

Like I said, "quality" is in the eye of the beholder.

I was wrong, BTW -- the file size of a JPEG 2000 .mov is much larger than MPEG-2.

[plainman007]

I wouldnt agree to that version of quailty is in the eye of the beholder. What if you walked in to a cam store and asked for a HD cam and he gives hands you a SD Cam and tells you not to worry because its in the eye of the beholder. Lol. The general consensus is that even a tech ignorant guy can tell when the quality of an image is exceptional. But that said i think ill render a JPEG2000 file and see for myself. Can i render to an avi wrapper ? In fact ive been experimenting with a video sever all last month and found the Mpeg versions to be much clearer than the wmv9s of even larger file size. My friend who knows nothing about these things saw it and immediately said the mpegs were clearer. 'quality'. David, on a sidenote, are you saying there are actually guys out there who appreciate a vcd when they can watch a dvd. And do they say its better. Im yet to see someone like that. :).

[David Jimerson]

I'll rephrase a bit . . .

When people write the word "quality" in a forum such as this, it means many different things, depending on the preferences of the person writing it.

Even specifying compression artifacts, etc., it still varies from person to person. Different codecs behave differently, even in areas that you'd think would be objective. The compression artifacts of typical Quicktime compression (blocky) look different from those of WMV (softer, rectangular). Some prefer one over the other -- but you can't really quantify objectively which one is "better quality." Then, you get into really subjective stuff like color response, etc. It's still a matter of preference.

[plainman007]

Hmmm, thats very understandable. I was just intending to get the best clarity (from a laymans point of view). Ill anyway try rendering to one of the jpeg2000 variants and see what i can get. This is for a theatrical video server. Ive had access to play around with it for sometime. Wanted to try some vairiants in renders. But the mpeg2 Hd resolutions look amazing to say the least. Saw it on a 15 ft screen and we were amazied to say the least. So Vegas can render for the professional movie industry. Maybe a little bit of modifications to the original program to suit all servers (render formats) and voila ! we're in business.

Meanwhile even a hardware decode server was struggling with windows media video whereas mpeg 2 of same resolutions were no problem. I think windows media is too heavily compressed (and also softer compared to mpeg2)

[Tainted]

I had to install an MJPEG codec in Vegas 7 once to be able to edit the movie files from my sony point-n-shoot. Once I did that, it worked no problem.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

VMS8 and Vegas Pro 8 come with such support, earlier versions need Matrox's codec.

[plainman007]

Tainted > The thread was started about MJPEG but my question was about JPEG2000. I believe they are different formats arent they ?