I've a new camcorder -- Panasonic TM700. It records natively in 1024p mts format. I can load a clip onto the timeline but it looks really lousy and renders poorly. To compare, I downloaded the Edius Neos3 trial. It loads easily and looks great. I can render in any format and the picture is sharp and clear.

From what I've read, VMS 10 should be able to produce a good clean render but this escapes me. Can anyone point me in a direction where I can get good clean renders? While I like Neos3, I'd rather not spend another $200. Plus, there is only one forum and the activity is minimal unlike VMS.

Thanks,
Burt

That camcorder records in AVCHD format which, for Vegas, can be a problem if you're not using a really powerful computer (preferably an i7).
It looks lousy because your Preview window is probably dropping it's playback resolution down to compensate for the added stress being placed on the CPU.
Set it to Best/Full and put your machine in Pause to see how good it can look.

When you say it renders poorly, what formats have you tried rendering to and what were your render settings?

also, what's your project settings?

Computer is i7-920 6G RAM NVidia 250

Project: NTSC AVCHD 1920x1080 60i
Renders:
main concept mp4, default template -- pixelated
main concept mp2 default template -- pixelated
sony avc default pixelated
video for windows default -- extremely soft no detail

main concept mp4 customized with maximum settings
main concept mp2 customized with maximum settings

I'm just trying different things to see if anything comes out. So far, nothing useable. Weird because the mov files from the T2i are so good.

Here's some suggestions.
1) When setting project properties, click on the "Match Media Properties" icon. Find your source clip and click on "open". That assures that your project properties are set correctly.
2) Set rendering quality to "Best"
3) If you are rendering from Interlaced to Progressive, make sure you set a Deinterlace type. "Blend" for slow motion, "Interpolate" for fast motion. Also, this should be set when re-sizing Interlaced clips.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20447760/Vegas-Proj-Settings.png

Good Luck!
...Jerry

I downloaded the trial of Pro. Found I could render in almost any format and it would look good. Then I compared the renders to Neos3. The Vegas renders were much better but let me qualify that by saying the renders were better for what I was doing. That is to say, I don't know what I'm doing. Vegas, for me is more dummy proof.

To make matters better, I was able to get the Pro upgrade for $250 which was only a few dollars more then Neos. Reason I went with Pro was the numerous forums and outstanding support found on the forums.

I'm currently using Main Concept AVC @29.970 and getting great results (to my eyes). I've been reading the Handbrake/Web Upload thread at the Sony Creative forum but it is way over my head.

Thanks for the help,
Burt