Need some basic advice on Rendering and Codecs

Leee wrote on 12/22/2011, 11:16 PM

Sorry, this is going to be a long one. Please stick with me if you can.....

While I play a Video Professional at work (and on TV), at home my most recent video footage was limited to a webcam. A very nice webcam (a Logitech 9000) but not even close to professional grade. A lot of what I do for fun at home is green screen/chroma key work. One whole side of my office/studio is covered with a green screen that drapes across the floor. A good lighting setup too.

Anyway, I just purchased a "prosumer" HD AVCHD video camera (JVC Everio) and it outputs files in .mts format (1920x1080), which Sony Vegas Pro gladly accepts. The images are crisp, clear and very professional looking. The raw files look great when I view them in Windows Media or Nero Kwik Viewer. Not so great in Quick Time.

Now here's where my problem and lack of knowledge comes in. After I make my little chroma key production (I just purchased Boris FX Chroma Key, which is much better than my previous favorite NewBlue Fx Chroma Key), I'm ready to render. Now I understand about interlacing and how it was needed for cathode ray tubes, but you need to de-interlace for HD or computer monitors. What I'm not sure about is the best format to render in, the best Codec to use and the best viewer to view the finished product in.

I've gone through several experiments and configurations and codecs. I recently downloaded CoreAVC (claiming to be the best codec to use), prior to that I've tried Cedocida DV codec. You may ask, why don't I just use the Codecs that come with Windows or the software I'm using???

Well, when rendering in Vegas Pro 11, several of the output files I've tried came out unreadable (black or very distorted/pixelated). Some files had very noticeable interlacing. Thus the reason for trying different things. I've tried rendering to AVI, mp4, m2t, each with varying results.

I don't know where the CoreAVC codec comes in, I think it might just play with Windows Media Player, because I noticed a change in that. Better de-interlacing.

Well, I know I've rambled on long enough, hopefully I've given you an idea as to what I'm looking for, probably for some of you it's very basic, but it's giving me a real big headache. Any suggestions, tips, advice, tutorials, criticisms or off-color jokes would be appreciated.

Basically what (in your opinion) is the best looking combination of rendering output, files, codec, viewers, etc. will give me the best results when starting off with mts files from my camera?

Thank you!
Lee

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 12/22/2011, 11:45 PM

Even though this tutorial is about creating video for upload, the same files can be played locally. It will give you some practice.

Start making Blu-ray disks. You don't need a Blu-ray writer, you just have to limit the bit rate to about 15 mbps and the length of your video to fit the capacity of a red laser disk, DVD-5 or DVD-9. There are Blu-ray templates in Vegas Pro. You do have a Blu-ray player don't you? The reason I say this is because, once you have created the elementery files for a Blu-ray, you can mux them together (download tsMuxer) and make files that can be played on hardware players and software players as well as Blu-ray disks when you get a burner.

Leee wrote on 12/23/2011, 3:41 AM

Hmmm, maybe I'll just go back to using my webcam. LOL!

No but seriously...thanks for the tutorial John, it's a lot to take in at one sitting, but it sounds like just what I was asking for. And I believe my Cyberlink DVD player has the ability to play Bluray files.

Thanks again... Off to experiment some more!

amendegw wrote on 12/23/2011, 4:35 AM

Lee,

Some addition information on our project page: HD Video for the Web - Guide for Sony Vegas Users

As John Dennis mentioned, the focus is video for web delivery, but virtually everything applies to local playback as well. Although, DVD & BluRay are a completely different story.

I'll mention one more thing - while many forum participants were contributed to the development of this method, the father & driving force behind the effort is musicvid.

...Jerry

Leee wrote on 12/23/2011, 5:16 AM

Thanks Jerry. And thank you to everyone who had a hand in making that tutorial (especially musicvid) :-)

It looks like I'm going to put my brain in gear this weekend. We use handbrake at work so I'm at least familiar with that.

NickHope wrote on 12/23/2011, 5:49 AM

Come on Lee. You sound like a tinkerer. Surely the enticement of a "best" option is too intriguing to resist ;)

amendegw wrote on 12/23/2011, 6:00 AM

Ha! Maybe I should have mentioned in my earlier post - Nick Hope (perfectionist, extraordinaire!) is the father of the "Best" method.

...Jerry (the father of Jazzythedog & the project page) [grin]

wbtczn wrote on 12/27/2011, 3:16 PM

John, thanks for sharing the video tutorial -- are there differences to consider with Vegas Pro 11? I have a 5 minute video that I did in Vegas. It has 2 video and 2 audio tracks. The video is all still pictures, text, and just a little bit of credit animation. I rendered it both as a .wmv (111mb) and .mp4 (186mb) versions, and both looked great on my computer.

Uploaded them to youtube, and the transitions / credits are all jerky. Started searching uploads to youtube and found this thread. I followed this video. Transitions look fine, but the video quality is really low. All of the fonts look really block/mushy and the background is low res. The .mov was 2.1 GB in size and the .mp4 was cut down to 81mb.

One thing that I had to guess at was what version of the .mov I was supposed to render as. I tried it as the 1mbps. Did I miss something?

john_dennis wrote on 12/27/2011, 5:55 PM

For youtube, the tutorial recommends 8 mbps .mp4 for upload. youtube will resample your video. 1 mbps probably is little low for upload.

In Vegas 11, this is a custom template I made from the Sony AVC/MVC standard templates. This is the Mainconcept AVC template you could use.

As Tom Petty says: "The future was wide open."

wbtczn wrote on 12/28/2011, 11:15 AM

Thanks again, John. I'll take a look at them.

I also found a link to a different version of the youtube uploader. I used it on my original .wmv file and it worked great!

https://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload

Ok...how do I make that an active link???

rraud wrote on 12/28/2011, 3:41 PM

https://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload

"how do I make that an active link/???
[link(=)put the URL here] = without the parentheses
for instance:
[link(equals sign)https://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload]
https://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload

You may also want to read #3 Sticky
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=521496&Replies=0

Alf Hanna wrote on 12/29/2011, 1:55 AM

Superb overview. i'll work on using this next week. I'm also posting to a web site for stream & download, I'll see if there are any changes for downloading based on a druple site. We are not optimized for video streaming.