Sorenson 3 is an ancient codec with much lower quality for a given file size than modern codecs.

It is only appropriate for playback on very old machines (because it's easy on the CPU).

H.264 rocks, the whole world is moving to this open standard, both for QT and Flash.

Bjorn,
You know that, I know that, but I left out the information on purpose To guide him through the steps of rendering to h264 .mp4 in Vegas at the same settings as his original, and then renaming to .mov because the Vegas templates don't yet accommodate this, is probably a little more than he needs to take on at this stage. I was thinking let's accomplish the task, and then help him through more complex workflows.

Thanks, I've rendered to WMV to get these things up today.
a couple followups...is the H.264 codec in Vegas 7?

Is there a checkbox I'm missing somewhere that would conform the session properties to the media imported?

I assume I would have to have the codec , in this case Sorenson, to render out as it's original format instead of converting, am I thinking of this right.

sorry for the simple questions...I'm a Protools Audio guy trying to re familiarize myself with Vegas.

AVC is H.264. There is the Mainconcept AVC and the Sony AVC codecs in Vegas.

Sorenson, the original source codec is available in the dropdown in the .mov templates in Vegas. h.264 is not included in the dropdown in the .mov templates in Vegas.

That's why I suggested keeping the settings the same as your original. Sorry for oversimplifying; I did so for a reason, your post indicated you wanted the output and format the same as your source.

Thanks for the help...a little background on the project.
This is concert footage shot in a 4 camera shoot edited in Final Cut Pro in CA . I'm in the band and did the audio mix. Individual songs were edited out and uploaded to iTunes for sale. I was sent these low res versions to edit into 1-2min clips for advertising on our website.
Though I'm more audio oriented than video I'm all for getting tech-ed up and enjoy learning from you pros....so hit me with it.

as always thanks for the help.
Bryan

Thanks musicvid....yes that was my original question...keeping the same settings. I couldn't find them and thought they weren't present. I'll have to look a little closer.

Thanks for the AVC tips.

musicvid,

I absolutely didn't meant to criticize you. You answered his question perfectly, as he asked for the same settings as the original.

I just wanted to offer a possible second step, that might or might not be a suitable choice for him (there is no best codec for everything).

Sorenson gave QT a bad name for years, because many thought they were the same thing.

Just like the frequent posts here suggesting to "render to AVI for best quality."

Bjorn,

No criticism taken. All is good. I agree, Sorenson is cruddy by today's standards.

I even suggested AVC in my first reply and then took it out before I posted ;?)

for my knowledge ..AVC is h.264 and is a compression codec suitable for web use?

forgot to say "thanks coursedesign"
bb

"for my knowledge ..AVC is h.264 and is a compression codec suitable for web use?"

Moreso all the time, Quicktime and Flash support it, WMP stubbornly does not . . .

Brian,
Our backgrounds are similar. Live music and sound experience, more recent exposure to video. Would you direct me to the actual iTunes downloads? I would be interested, and may be able to help you get the best renders for your purposes.

Bjorn, sorry if I sounded a bit cranky in my first reply, I hadn't had lunch yet . . .

;?)

You have time for lunch??? Wow...

:O)

I've developed bad eating habits, not to mention sleep habits (or rather lack of them) again.

AVC is H.264, but I always render .mov files from QT Pro out of habit (Vegas didn't do this well).

"AVC is H.264, but I always render .mov files from QT Pro out of habit (Vegas didn't do this well). "

I used to have QT Pro, but they wanted to charge me again for it when they moved to version 7. As little as I used it, it didn't seem worth the trouble.

When I need a .mov file, I have a lot of success rendering it as .mp4 in Vegas, then renaming as .mov.

Super is also quite good at rendering .mov and .flv files using the h.264 codec, and it is free.

hey musicvid...you can see the clips i made at
www.foghat.net at the bottom of the music page

search itunes for foghat video...i'll try to find the actual link and post it.

4 songs are up Fool for the City, Slow Ride, I Just Wanna Make Love and California Blues. I am the lead GTR.
Thanks

If AVC is h.264, what is the compression from mpeg4 out of .mov? I thought someone in the past mentioned that it is h.264.

"If AVC is h.264, what is the compression from mpeg4 out of .mov?"

There is no compression or decompression other than the codec. h.264 is h.264.
h.264 is another name for MPEG-4 AVC.

"I thought someone in the past mentioned that it is h.264. "

This gets asked frequently.
The .mov extension is a container. (So is .mp4, for that matter).
As such, it can use any of many different codecs.
H.264 is one of those codecs.
You can rename an h.264-encoded .mp4 to .mov, and vice versa. There is no essential difference, as long as the codec is the same.

Other file formats that QuickTime supports natively (to varying degrees) include AIFF, WAV, DV, MP3, and MPEG-1. With additional QuickTime Extensions, it can also support Ogg, ASF, FLV, MKV, DivX Media Format, and others.

The easiest way to understand this is,"I can wrap a fruitcake in a red wrapper or a green wrapper. It is still a fruitcake."

OMG, I loved Foghat in the seventies.

I was studying / gigging in the Boulder / Denver area at the time, and saw the original group live more than once.

Don't think I ever saw Wild Cherry live, but our 10 piece funk band covered "Play that Funky Music" near the end of our group's existence.

As a forty-year wannabe, it's a pleasure to meet you.

Thanks Musicvid, I must have phrased that wrong. If I use the .mov filetype, and the mp4 template, does it encode with the h.264 codec?

Ahh, now I see your confusion, and it is understandable.

The answer is no, the MPEG-4 option in the Video Format dropdown in the Vegas .mov templates does not encode to AVC MPEG-4 (Part 10), but to a much older standard called MPEG-4 Part 2. The actual codec uses a Simple profile, different fourCC, and is generally deprecated (replaced) by AVC h.264, which came along later.

That being said, the way to get around this for now in Vegas is to render to AVC .mp4, and rename the rendered file to .mov if you wish (not necessary). See my previous post for that explanation.

Hope this helps.

KEWL! Thanks.

Bryan,

For fun, I downloaded FFTC from iTunes, and as i thought, it is already AVC encoded 640 X 464 and opens directly in Vegas. That being the case, Coursedesign's original advice is best.

Don't use those little files someone sent you, start with the freshly-downloaded files from iTunes.

Once you have edited your segment in Vegas, "Render As" the Sony AVC format.

Start with the Default template, and change the following:
-- Video Rendering Quality: Best
-- Video Frame Size: Custom, 640 X 464
-- Video Bit Rate: 1500000 (get the number of zeros right)
-- Audio Sample Rate: 44,100 Hz (same as your original)
-- Audio Bit Rate: 256,000

You don't need to change anything else from the Sony AVC Default template.
You can change the rendered file extension to .mov if you wish.
If you need a smaller video, you could set the Custom Size to 480 X 348, or 320 X 232.

This will give you the best possible clips for your website.
30 second sample ********, good for 48 hours.

Coo, Foghat. Takes me back. I used to be a huge fan of Savoy Brown around 1970 and I went to some of the earliest Foghat gigs when they originally split off from SB - nice to know the band's still going all these years later. Sounding good too.

Mark
(I am very old)