H.264 in Vegas 10 vs. 13

[Steven Davis]

So, I'm trying to get the best render for more internet video, and Vegas 10 doesn't have H.264 out of the gate per se. So is 13 more flexible with internet renders for vimeo etc? I looked at the reviews and I noticed it may.

[Mike Kujbida]

This method works great!!
Vegas-2-HandBrake

Here's a thread on the Sony Vegas forum where I first read about it.
One-click frameserving from Vegas to Handbrake

[Steven Davis]

Thanks Mike,


It looks like from the documentation that Vegas 10 is not completely supported or known if it's supported. I'm just trying to figure out if I should burn the 300.00 bucks to upgrade to 13.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

... I'm just trying to figure out if I should burn the 300.00 bucks to upgrade to 13.

I have some work to do in Vegas 10 later, I'll post back about the available settings (an audio project, I have better audio plugins on v10 than later versions. Go Izotope Ozone!)

But I'd say *don't* burn $300 if this is the only concern.

a) If you're pursuing quality for Youtube, Vimeo, or similar, you can use the MainConcept MP4 and just throw more bitrate at it.

b) If you're pursuing quality for direct streaming of your files, you really should be creating an intermediate/master out of Vegas, and rendering in something else. Everything people claim about quality in the freeware Handbrake is true, and it's very useful for low-volume work. For high-volume needs, Sorenson Squeeze matches the quality of HB with more robust batching and a wider set of encoding filters. Not to dis Telestream Episode, I just don't know it that well.

HB does this trick very simply: It uses the best-in-class open-source tools x264 for the actual h.264 encode, Yadif deinterlacer, and Lanczos scalar.

There may be other reasons you'd want to upgrade to v13, but I don't think improvements in the h.264/MP4 encoder is one of them. But I'm back on v12, and may not know what I'm talking about.

[Seth Bloombaum]

I just looked at the video rendering options in v10, and found what I expected.

MainConcept AVC - this is of the h.264/MP4/AVC familiy of codecs. It's an equivalent to h.264, though MainConcept's version isn't as good as the x264 version.

Sony AVC - same.

Do you find anything different in v13? Remember, you can download a 30-day trial and see if it provides anything better for you...

[Steven Davis]

Since I bought my canon XF300s, I've been recording in the 50mb mode, and I've had a fit trying to get the highest quality online, so that's why I wanted to know if I'm missing something. Once I get the video to Vimeo, it's crapped out, no matter what variation I try out of Vegas 10.

Hmm, I may download the trial of 13, that's a good idea Seth.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Well, it shouldn't crap out on Vimeo...

You're probably at 1080p? I'd try the MainConcept AVC, variable bitrate, min. 6,000,000, max 12,000,000 and see how that looks on Vimeo.

IIRC though Vimeo is downscaling to 720p display for HD? If I didn't find what I wanted with the settings above, I'd probably through it a 720p at 4Mbps/6Mbps and see if I like it any better.

When you see it in Vimeo HD there should be no compression artifacts. If you see differences in this between your renders and what Vimeo does that's worthy of followup. OTOH, if there are gamma/brightness/contrast/color differences there are some options in Vegas to explore.

[Steven Davis]

I'ts 1080i at 50mbps but I see your idea. I'll keep working at it.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Oooohhhh, 1080i.

I'd recc that you take control of the conversion from i to p, instead of leaving Vimeo to do it. That's definitely a place to look at your workflow.

This in fact would be a great place to use Handbrake - create a Master 1080i out of Vegas, then slurp it into Handbrake - use the *excellent* scalar and deinterlacer there to create a 720p, using their default "constant quality" setting (unless you're shooting sports or handheld...)

See what that looks like on Vimeo - I suspect a noticeable improvement!