Vegas Video discussions from 2006 (Q1Q2)

[Dale Paterson]

Hi,

I have rendered PAL DV (as well as downconverted HDV) to MPEG2 for DVD Architect PAL Video Streams on a number of occasions using either a Constant Bit Rate of 9,800,000 BPS or setting the Maximum, Average, and Minimum Bit Rates to 9,800,000 BPS.

Although the files are extremely large I have not had any problem playing them in any of my set top DVD players (4 x different brands of consumer set top players) or computer DVD players.

My question really is - would this cause other problems that I am not aware of?

I mean, other than the file sizes (which are not a problem if you are only putting about 15 or 20 minutes of footage on a DVD like 3 x demo music videos for example), there does not seem to be a problem using these very high bit rates and large files.

I am assuming that by doing this I am getting the highest possible MPEG2 quality.

Am I missing something?

Any reason not to use these high bit rates?

Comments anyone?

Regards,

Dale.

[Zdravko Jancevski]

Something I can’t understand? I edit my video from my DV camera with Vegas 6,
then with Debugframeserver encoding video to MPEG 2 to TMPGEnc 2.5 for best results.For example for 1 hour of video (720x576), 1 audio track 224 kbits/s, it takes about 8000 kbits/sec video bitrate for best quality. I decided to use native encoder In Vegas 6 but here are the problems. First at all, there is no calculating how will be the final project depending of chosen video bitrate.O.K., I use video bitrate calculator, and it says for instance , 1 hour and 30min of video (720x576}
1 audio track with 224 kbits/sec takes 6570 kbits/sec video bitrate for final project
of 4,3Gb. I use these parameters in Vegas 6 but final project is smaller then 4,3Gb,
about 3,90Gb.So what is the point?Which video bitrate calculator to use that coresponding with Vegas MPEG encoder for best results. I think that Vegas use Mainconcept encoder , and from my experience it gives little bit low quality comparing with TMPGEnc but it takes much less time for encoding. So for example what is the highest video bitrate in Vegas I can use for 1 hour 30min of video, or simple how to manage these parameters when rendering with Vegas, what video bitratecalculator, some plugin for this option or something???
Regards.

[Zdravko Jancevski]

How to split rendering project into 3 separate MPEG video clips.
For example I edit wedding party that is 4 hour long and split to 3 separate project 1 hour and 20min long to fit in to 3 DVD discs for
optimal quality. Then I edit these 3 project one by one, and save to HD.
So main question is : How to render these three separate project to MPEG 2
out of timeline, some kind of batch rendering.Maybe there is some plugin for
batch rendering without using the timeline.
Regards.

[Frank Grygier]

The Event Pan & Crop and Event FX icons show up in each clip on the time line.

Can someone tell me how to them off?

I can't seem to finf the preference setting that turnd them on.

Thanks for you help.

Frank

[Edward Troxel]

They are on by default. To turn them off, go to View - Video Event Buttons (in older versions of Vegas, it's under the Preferences).

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

View/Video Event buttons, or SHIFT+CTRL+C will toggle them on/off

[Edward Troxel]

So... bottom line is that you have three projects and then would like, once ALL are finished, to batch render all three products. Probably the best batch rendering program out there today is the Veggie Toolkit http://www.peachrock.com/software/veggie-toolkit.html

Alternatives include opening Vegas 3 times and starting all three renders, using Network Rendering on a single machine to queue up the projects back to back, or searching for other batch rendering scripts looking for one that explicity handles VEG files as the source.

[Edward Troxel]

Are you taking into account the audio? Which preset in Vegas are you using? The DVDA presets do NOT include audio so that will be added to your final total. The audio must be rendered separately as AC3 or WAV.

[Edward Troxel]

You have video only at those rates? You need to take the audio into consideration as the video PLUS the audio should not exceed the max.

[Jerry Waters]

Try Connect HD and I think you'll buy it. I've used it a lot and it is much better than Vegas capture and the avi files it produces are very good. On the slower computer it captures m2t in one step, then converts it in the second. The converted files are easy to handle in Vegas. On a faster computer, Connect will capture and convert in one step but a duel 3800+ X2 is marginal. Cineform says it works but it doesn't on mine. Anyway it is still easier. You can capture a whole tape in one file, convert, and in the conversion process it will scene detect, splitting the clips.

[Jerry Waters]

Anyone who hasn't should probably try Connect HD trial version. Connect creates great avi files that edit easily in Vegas. It captures and converts m2t. In the process it scene detects. (It does it in one step on a fast computer, in two steps - capture, then detect - on a slow one.) It is very much faster to use.

[Gino Salerno]

Is there a setting that will reduce motion blur in Vegas 6?
My subjects look fine until they start moving. Then they look like The Flash trail while the background is perfectly sharp.

[Heath Vinyard]

Does Connect HD allow for batch conversions? I'm capturing (or soon to be) with DV rack and will dumping the .m2t files directly to the HD. Can I import them into Connect and have them all convert at once?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Yes, it does support batch conversion

[Christopher Lefchik]

Originally Posted by Dale Paterson

I have rendered PAL DV (as well as downconverted HDV) to MPEG2 for DVD Architect PAL Video Streams on a number of occasions using either a Constant Bit Rate of 9,800,000 BPS or setting the Maximum, Average, and Minimum Bit Rates to 9,800,000 BPS.

I echo Edward's question: Is that only the video, not including the audio? If it's only video, that is an awfully high bitrate. I've authored DVD's with video track bitrates as high as 9Mbps, which is still higher than it ought to be, but I would definitely not go over that. One video I did recently had a 9Mbps video stream, and a 384kbps Dolby Digital audio stream. One of my DVD players seemed to have some trouble keeping up, so I reduced the audio stream to 192kbps and it seemed to be okay. Ideally, the video plus audio should probably be around 8Mbps or less for best compatibility with DVD players. I'm a quality freak, though, and like to take my video streams up to 9Mbps. So far I've gotten away with it, with no reports of problems. But I've only done limited distribution of my DVDs so far. If you're going to be make a large number of copies it would be best to have a lower bitrate.