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Best rendering quality on vegas movie studios?

rianlemon

rianlemon

Hi folks

Shooting with a canon 60d and editing in sony vegas movie studios, wondering what the best quality render would be from this program? Im relatively new to editing and Ive been rendering in WMV 1080p 24fps, can anyone point me in the right direction here?
 
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You'll want an .mp3 or a .mov, .wmv won't play on macs without VLC or a similar codec reader
ProRes will be the best quality but gigantic filesize. This would only really be used if exporting a clip that needs further editing.
You'll want to use h.264 to cook out an .mp4. I'd recommend going above 10mbps but less than 20, as most streaming sites convert to a super low bitrate anyway. Hoping my info here is all accurate, and that the gurus can correct any misinformation i've given. Happy Editing!
 
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Hi WhiteOpus

Thanks for the help, I actually am doing further editing, or rather Im giving it to someone else who will colour correct and add title credits. Might give that prores a shot, although I'll see what the filesizes are like
 
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If you're going to have someone color it, you'll need to use a lossless codec. probably ProRes 422, even though the 60d shoots in 4:2:0 8-bit. I would imagine that the person coloring this can also use an XML to do the work, which would be totally lossless, as the only encoding you're doing is at the very end.
 
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Hmm just had a look there and can't find any prores options, I can see quicktime 7 though, strange though on the quicktime because it doesnt give any options for fps, it just goes from 56 Kpbs to 3 Mpbs. Other options include Mainconcept MPEG2, Mainconcept AVC ACC, Realmedia 9, Sony AVC MVC, Videos for Windows and WMV. Guess this is what I get for going for the cheap sony vegas option! So I guess out of those I should go for quicktime7, render to 3Mpbs?

Doubt I'd have the space for prores files anyway :P
 
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Best format you can get out of Sony Vegas is Sony 10-bit YUV (under the .avi options) - it's uncompressed though so expect a *huge* render. I convert it afterwards to 10-bit ProResHQ using ffmpeg - I really recommend this workflow for the best possible quality.
 
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AudioPostExpert you're right, it was 23.976! And thanks Aegis, Im gonna do as you said, its strange though, when it was rendering in 30fps it estimated the file would be 18gb, then when I put it down to 24fps it went down to 9gb, does 6fps make that much difference?

Also how long doesi t take to convert a file in ffmpeg?

Thanks for the help guys!
 
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Aegis said:
Best format you can get out of Sony Vegas is Sony 10-bit YUV (under the .avi options) - it's uncompressed though so expect a *huge* render. I convert it afterwards to 10-bit ProResHQ using ffmpeg - I really recommend this workflow for the best possible quality.
Click to expand...

Hi Aegis,

Rendered it in that quality but for the life of me I cant get this ffmpeg program to start, ive extracted it but theres no install option, just an ffmpeg and I click it and nothing happens, is there any other programs you'd recommend
 
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rianlemon said:
AudioPostExpert you're right, it was 23.976!
Click to expand...

And yet you appear to have made the exact same mistake again in the very next sentence! I would be wise to get the correct frame rates in your mind otherwise it's likely to bite you in the a$$ one day!

rianlemon said:
when it was rendering in 30fps it estimated the file would be 18gb, then when I put it down to 24fps it went down to 9gb, does 6fps make that much difference?
Click to expand...

Presumably you mean 29.97fps or 30fps and 23.976fps again?

There are a couple of possibilities: The most likely is that most programs are not very accurate when it comes to estimating file size, especially with lossy codecs. It could be that if you were to render them out the actual file sizes would be as one would expect (IE. Roughly 1/5th smaller for the 23.976fps rather than 1/2). A less likely possibility is that as 1080p 30fps is not a standard frame rate/resolution, it might cause different algorithms to be employed or might even be changing some rez settings, either of which could potentially make a bigger difference than the frame rate difference alone would indicate.

rianlemon said:
Also how long doesi t take to convert a file in ffmpeg?
Click to expand...

Depends on a number of variables; what codecs one is using to transcode, what setting are employed, etc.

rianlemon said:
I cant get this ffmpeg program to start
Click to expand...

You do realise it's a Command Line program? It does not have a gui, clicking the program will not do anything, you need to run it from a command line prompt.

G
 
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AudioPostExpert said:
And yet you appear to have made the exact same mistake again in the very next sentence! I would be wise to get the correct frame rates in your mind otherwise it's likely to bite you in the a$$ one day!



Presumably you mean 29.97fps or 30fps and 23.976fps again?

There are a couple of possibilities: The most likely is that most programs are not very accurate when it comes to estimating file size, especially with lossy codecs. It could be that if you were to render them out the actual file sizes would be as one would expect (IE. Roughly 1/5th smaller for the 23.976fps rather than 1/2). A less likely possibility is that as 1080p 30fps is not a standard frame rate/resolution, it might cause different algorithms to be employed or might even be changing some rez settings, either of which could potentially make a bigger difference than the frame rate difference alone would indicate.



Depends on a number of variables; what codecs one is using to transcode, what setting are employed, etc.



You do realise it's a Command Line program? It does not have a gui, clicking the program will not do anything, you need to run it from a command line prompt.

G
Click to expand...

Hey AudioPostExpert

I actually changed the fps to 24fps (actual 24) when I was rendering, then I read some more and realised I should just keep it at 23.976. But yes I'll definitely need to pay more attention to these differences. Think you were spot on with the inaccurate file size estimation, 37gb turned out to be 15gb.

And I have just realised ffmpeg is a command line program, apologies if these all seem like basic questions, Im quite new to all this and haven't used a command line program before so its proving to be a bit of a nightmare! Well I've rendered the files as Sony YUV, I'll transfer those on to my editor who's a bit more savvy with these things and he should be able to convert into prores on his apple, I think.

Thanks for the help folks!
 
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1) stick your rendered file in the same folder as ffmpeg
2) create an empty text document
3) type in the following:

ffmpeg -i Your_Video_Name.avi -vcodec prores -profile:v 3 ffmpeg_ProRes_422.mov

4) save the document and change its file extension from .txt to .bat
5) double-click on the batch file you just created and wait for ffmpeg to do its thing
6) check the ProRes .mov loads up in Vegas (brightness/colours might look off - that's normal - Vegas does dumb things with the gamma on Quicktime movies - if the file plays back, it's fine).
 
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Thanks so much Aegis, this has been very helpful. Unfortunately my colour correction guy has dropped out of the film unexpectedly a week before the deadline, just gonna have to do the colour correct myself, so not sure I'll need to export to prores now.

Anyway, I've never really colour corrected or colour graded before, any videos, books, or articles anyone could recommend? I know colour correction and grading is a very complicated process, but desperate times calls for desperate measures, if anyone can point me in the direction of a crash course that would be fantastic!
 
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