NEO Scene and Vegas on Windows

[Hidef1080]

I hope these personal observations will be useful to a few of you out there.


I had Premiere CS3 on which I would cut HDV and standard definition and output to DVD or Windows Media HD all without any trouble whatsoever but I moved to Sony Vegas Pro and I got NEO Scene for various reasons.


Some observations:


When render AVCHD files out to WMV-HD in Vegas the images look about a close to the original MTS files as you can get and this would follow the theories about trying to stay as close to your source material as possible for the cleanness output. Vegas is fast however when working with AVCHD files the preview playback is not smooth [workable but there is shutter] and my T9500 2.53GHz processor is working hard [and getting hot]. Still not bad for native AVCHD editing on a mid-level laptop with 3 gigs of usable RAM.


NEO Scene creates a larger avi file out of my AVCHD mts file but with that I get [according to CineForm] 4:2:2 and 10 bits - all of which won't make the images look any better but you should have more to work with in post.
4::2:2 and 10 bits aside the main thing I've noticed is that the NEO clips render a little faster.
A 2 minute and 34 second clip in AVCHD took about 30 minutes to render and the same clip took about 28 minutes in NEO. I as so noticed that my CPU did not work as hard or get as hot while working with the NEO avi.
Playback in Vegas was as smooth as standard def video and believe it or not I can edit the NEO avi in Windows Movie Maker too for what is worth.
I usually need to add one point/degree/click of contrast when I work with NEO avi's in Vegas but that's just me.


I'll post some screen grabs I shot in “low light” [one 60 watt bulb] of the different formats in WMV-HD and the NEO Scene avi.

[Hidef1080]

These are all taken from a 720p AVCHD mts from my 150.
The resolution on the photos is 1600 x 900 because that's my laptop's resolution and these are nothing more than screen grabs to give anyone interested an idea as to how each “workflow” looks compared to the other.
It is not about noise.... However, the background is a very dusty mirror so it looks like noise in the back.

AVCHD from Vegas
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg256/hidef1080/AVCHD_to_WMVHD_via_Vegas.jpg

NEO from Windows Movie Maker - Can you believe it?!?!
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg256/hidef1080/NEO_to_WMVHD_via_Movie_Maker.jpg

NEO avi file
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg256/hidef1080/NEO-avi.jpg

NEO from Vegas no contrast
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg256/hidef1080/NEO_to_WMVHD_via_Vegas.jpg

NEO from Vegas with 1 "click" of contrast
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg256/hidef1080/NEO_to_WMVHD_via_Vegas_Plus1_Contra.jpg

[dcloud]

hey how about some dvc transcoded too :)

[Hidef1080]

hey how about some dvc transcoded too :)

I no longer have CS3 installed and Vegas can't work with DVCPRO-HD without some plug in.

Sorry.

[David Jimerson]

http://www.dvfilm.com/raylight/

[Hidef1080]

That's it! Raylight.

Thanks David.

[Aje]

After reading the raylight tutorial on their site I don´t understand so please explain.
This thread was about HMC 150 videofiles they are AVCHD MTS files and Raylight handles
MXF files from P2 cards. I have HMC 151 and use Vegas 8.0c because 8.1 won´t handle
my 151 MTS files native at all.
Raylight seems to be very handy but how do I use it for HMC 151 MTS files ?
Aje

[Hidef1080]

Raylight is more about giving people who use Vegas the ability to work with DVCPRO files since DVC is pretty common in broadcasting and Vegas works with native AVCHD mts files. I don't think Raylight will do anything for mts files.


I'm surprised to hear that Vegas 8.1 won't handle mts natively because I thought 8.1 was just a 64 bit version of Vegas.
I really hope it's an oversight on Sony's part that will be corrected very soon as I was planning on moving to a 64 bit system for my main computer.

[Aje]

If you look in Vegas forum you can see all kinds of problems people have with 64 bit version 8.1
If I load a MTS file in project window/timeline there is just the audioportion visible.
I have a workaround converting MTS with New Blue fx UpShift to m2t files which work well in 8.1.
I thought Raylight would convert with more quality than UpShift can do.
There is a program from Panasonic for free to convert HMC 151 MTS files to AVCHD
maybe I can use Raylight then but perhaps thats a bad idea.
I always render out to ordinary DVD quality for my clients.
Aje

[Hidef1080]

I don't think I would transcode to DVCPRO and then use Raylight just to output to DVD in Vegas.


Raylight cost a little more than NEO Scene which should give you some high quality avi files to use in Vegas.


I think having the option to work with DVCPRO is great and I may get Raylight for that but based on what you just said, I would look at transcoding only once to a file/format that Vegas can work with.
AVCHD>>transcode>>>Vegas edit>>>DVD


CineForm has a 3 day free demo of NEO Scene so give that a try before you buy it.
You may find UpShift to be better or you might like NEO Scene.