How to Render Full 1080p in Sony Vegas Pro 9 without ridiculous file size?

[Alex Thames]

Hi all,

I have been having this problem throughout my history with Vegas, ever since it supported HD/HDV.

I shoot my footage using a Sony HVR-A1U camera (HDV - 1440x1080 with 1:30 pixel aspect ratio, NTSC, 29.97 fps). I use project settings for 1440x1080, Best video quality, 1:3 pixel aspect ratio, Guassian blur, and deinterlace via interpolating fields, no field order (progressive).

I capture my Mini-DV tapes using HDV Split 0.77 which creates .m2t files that I import onto the Vegas timeline. However, I've experimented with many render settings to no avail.

Everything I end up rendering, no matter what setting, seems to give me some HUGE file for a relatively short video length.

Raw .m2t is about 13gb/hour of footage. I would like to get 1080p final footage (1920x1080 progressive, 29.97 fps) without that ridiculous size.

I'm hoping a 10 min 1080p video clip can be around a few hundred mbs. Does anyone know of any render settings to achieve this?

Final footage will be viewed on a decently capable computer (not some weak laptop).

P.S. Also, it seems with Vegas 9, I am constantly getting "low on memory" and it stops rendering half-way.

I run a Q6600 Intel Quad Core 2.4 ghz with 4gb of DDR2 800mhz RAM, Nvidia 8600 GTS 256mb video card on Windows XP Professional 32-bit.

[Chris Barcellos]

Try settings below. it is 1280 x 720, but if you like it you could try customizing to 1920 x1080. This may get you there

[Alex Thames]

That's weird...I don't even have that template. There is only two templates for that file format. 320x240 and 640x480. No HD templates...

[Marcus Martell]

Hi -chris, sorry if i ask u: when i want to render and get a good HDV format i use HDV 1080 50i (PAL); i'm talking about raw footage shot witha z1(not progressive).I use main concept mpg2(m2t) template hdv1080 50i.Then when i put the file on a usb device and i plug to my wdhdtv reader i see a good image on my big lcd screen or plasma tv.Do you think that with your settings i could get more quality on the screen?
thx

MM

[Marcus Martell]

Hi Chris, could u gimme more info about this compression?

Gracias

[Ian Planchon]

Originally Posted by Alex Thames

That's weird...I don't even have that template. There is only two templates for that file format. 320x240 and 640x480. No HD templates...

i dont have it either....whats up with that?

[Seth Bloombaum]

Although the O.P. asked how to make his file small but still good quality, "What codec gives the best picture quality for a given bitrate?" is the underlying question here.

Chris says "Main Concept MP4" is the answer, which is, I think, correct but incomplete.

MP4 = MPEG-4 = AVC = h.264. These are all terms for the same compression codec, slightly different flavors. And yes, Chris is right, this gives the best quality for the bitrate, at least today. These things tend to change.

The point of my post is that the Mainconcept AVC/MP4 is not the only way to get this compression out of Vegas. You can also use the QT MPEG-4/h.264, or the Sony AVC/MP4.

MP4 is the most highly compressed video in general use today, so it requires more resources to encode, and more to decode. Not a problem - the O.P. says there's plenty of horsepower on the playback machines.

However, there are some choices as to the player, usually this will be QT (ugh, performance isn't great on the PC), or some Flash Video Player (can be great performance, but requires some thought to select one).

For ease of use on the PC and really pretty good quality for bitrate, WMV9 is a great choice. You might see how it works for you.

Originally Posted by Alex Thames

That's weird...I don't even have that template. There is only two templates for that file format. 320x240 and 640x480. No HD templates...

You're going to need to get comfortable with creating your own custom templates to work with 1920x1080 output.

[Ian Planchon]

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

You're going to need to get comfortable with creating your own custom templates to work with 1920x1080 output.

ohhh, that was a custom template, that makes sense.