Best Render Settings in Vegas

[tonydvcoste]

Sorry if this was already provided in another thread, I searched and looked around. Anyways, what is the best render settings on Sony Vegas for outputting AVCHD footage? I hate to admit this but I've been shooting on AVCHD for a few years now, and editing with Vegas, but I've never been completely happy with my outputs, as far as file size/quality is concerned. So far I've liked to use mpg-2, and I keep the output settings as close to the input settings as I can, but after using Final Cut Express with DVX100B footage, and realizing that the default .MOV output settings are the easiest settings ever to use, I figure there might be much more optimal settings for the GH1 with Vegas.

I realize of course that the DVX footage looks great when exported in FCE because the footage was imported with FCE, therefore the program knows the file format, and knows the best output settings for it, where now I'm going back to shooting on a format that the editing program doesn't get to choose itself.

Any advice on avoiding hours (days...weeks...) worth of failed testing would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys!

[dmoreno]

If your computer plays avchd smoothly, or have a ps3 or similar player that plays avchd, staying in that format can work for you for small size/ nice quality.
Render as Mainconcept AVC/AAC creating a custom profile with custom frame size (either 1280x720 or 1920x1080) the framerate you use (probably progressive scan), pixel aspect ration 1:1.
I use variable bitrate, max 15000 average 10000 for 720, max 20000 average 150000 for 1080, but that depends on the size/quality you want.
make sure to include audio in the audio tab, 48 khz, the bitrate you want, for me 224 is good enough.
Divx works well also, encodes faster, but I somehow don't like that format too much.
I render everything that is everyday stuff mp4s at 720 resulution, 24p, 10000 kbps. It looks pretty good in my 42 plasma, through my ps3 and is vimeo/you tube ready. The plasma has 768 lines anyway, so I don't need the 1080. I still save some stuff that I like too much at 1080 mpeg2 25 mbps (HDV standard).

See if that works for you.

[TrueIndigo]

I can't even get a file to present properly on the Vegas timeline. I'm using Vegas Pro 8.0b, which has mts as a listed fle type, but when I drop a GH1 file onto the timeline it seems like a "non file" and there's no video as such. What am I doing wrong? Have never used AVCHD before and don't know what to expect...

[dmoreno]

I have Vegas Pro 8.0c and have no problem with GH1 raw files downloaded from this forums. Update to 8.0c and see if that helps!