Vegas output format

[kurtmo]

I've been playing with HD output formats. I've gotten decent results rendering from Vegas to .mp4 creating my own template using Sony AVC Normal format as well as standard mpg2 using the Blu-ray defaults.

I've also made nice .mov renders with using photo-jpeg codec, but the file size is about double the AVC format.

My question to those hoping to render to HD, what format settings are you using/planning to use?

I really wish Vegas would allow us to modify the AVCHD settings to allow 720p24 settings!

BTW, I'm using Vegas with Raylight as an intermediary.

[PerroneFord]

I really wish Vegas would allow us to modify the AVCHD settings to allow 720p24 settings!



What makes you think you can't? Works fine for me.

-P

[kurtmo]

What makes you think you can't? Works fine for me.
-P

Perhaps I was unclear...there doesn't appear to be a way to "render" out to AVCHD except at 1080p30 or 1440x1080p30. I'm trying to render to Sony AVC settings. The AVCHD high profile is only available with the hard coded sizes and frame rates.

Does that make more sense?

Thanks,

kurtmo

[PerroneFord]

Use the Mainconcept encoder, and you can do whatever you want.

[kurtmo]

Using mainconcept, you can only render using the "main" profile. If you look at the Sony AVC templates for AVCHD, you can set the codec on high profile. Not sure exactly what the difference is, but I believe the encoding is different between main and high profile.

[floz23]

Greetings everyone,

My hmc150 arrives on Monday! woohoo!

Anyway, I wanted to say, the BEST quality you can get is really a two step process, and it really depends on what the final delivery format is...

My workflow:

Render out an avi using the HUFFYUV codec, which will make sure I lose no quality.

Then I use Megui to produce an h264/aac, mp4. I suggest you take the painstaking time to learn megui. In the end, your deliveries will look STUNNING if you learn all of its options and intricacies.

Also, it should be noted. The latest version of the flash player can play standard mp4 (h264/aac) naively, and the ipod/phone plays mp4 too. MEGUI can produce AMAZING encodes for both deliveries.

Yes, HIGH profile is a huge improvement over the main profile, but many hardware devices can not play it (including ipods).


-Adam

[kurtmo]

Hey Adam,

Thanks for the megui tip, I'll check it out.

Can it take Lagarith as input? For short films, that should work but for longer stuff, HUFFYUV is gonna be pretty big.

Kurt

[floz23]

Kurt,

As you'll see, MEGUI uses avisynth as its frameserver. So, if you can build an avisynth script that will render the video, then it shall be ok. Avisynth is pretty versitile, it can use either the vfw or directshow renderers. To the point: yes, lagraith or any VFW or Directshow codec is good.

-Adam

btw: so what if the huffyuv is bigger? lagraith is slooowwwwww! Doesn't everyone have several terrabytes now? ;)





Hey Adam,

Thanks for the megui tip, I'll check it out.

Can it take Lagarith as input? For short films, that should work but for longer stuff, HUFFYUV is gonna be pretty big.

Kurt

[kurtmo]

btw: so what if the huffyuv is bigger? lagraith is slooowwwwww! Doesn't everyone have several terrabytes now? ;)

Do you use huffyuv 2.1.1?



Kurt,
As you'll see, MEGUI uses avisynth as its frameserver. So, if you can build an avisynth script that will render the video, then it shall be ok. Avisynth is pretty versitile, it can use either the vfw or directshow renderers. To the point: yes, lagraith or any VFW or Directshow codec is good.


MEGUI is pretty cool. Thanks for the tip!

[floz23]

Yes, huffyuv 2.1.1, AND there is a 64bit version floating around, which CAN be used natively with Vegas 8.1! Awesome, for sure.

Few things I notice,

First: The sony YUV codec really sucks for HD, it makes massive files which are obviously compressed looking (maybe not, i'd have to do some more tests). Also, in an 8bit project vegas project using the sony yuv codec, the resulting avi will output to studioRGB when played back, ugh.

Two: Huffyuv issues: first, in the 64bit version, I cannot open the properties dialog box, meaning that i cant get to the options to force a RGB to YUV2 color space conversion (Better compression.) Even when using huffyuv's RGB mode, when compared to sony's yuv codec, the resulting files are HALF has small, and the huffyuv is totally lossless. It further has the "plus" of decoding to computerRGB on playback... whew.

Finally, after playing around with figuring out how to render my HD projects losslessly, make sure you render ACROSS harddrives. Make sure that the harddrive where your project and media are stored is NOT the harddrive that the rendered AVI is output to.

Just my observations.... YMMV

-Adam

[kurtmo]

Floz23 -

Thanks for the tips. i'm not at my machine and I need to get 2.1.1, but I was wondering about how big is a 720p24 huffyuv file in Gigs/min?

Kurt