I don't know if 7D footage handles any better in VMS 10 than older Vegas versions. But 5D/7D footage is notorious for not working well on the Vegas timeline.

Many of the pros transcode theirs to Cineform first, but it's not free. Since MXF is not available in VMS 10, you may want to look into one of the free Avid LE Codecs (DNxHD) as an intermediate.

Then you can play with converting your 59.94p (which the 7D supports in 720 mode) to 30p, or see how well DNxHD does it for you since it supports both.

It's not playing at half speed. The image is kind of jerky and stuttering. It would be a cool music video effect, but not on an entire movie. The audio sounds normal, so I guess the playback is at normal speed. Other clips shot by a different HD camera are playing back normally.

GSpot says: Pics/s = 59.941 and Frames/s = 59.941. Fields/s is left blank.

I think this is probably correct, as the guy who gave these clips to me told me he set the camera (his first shoot ever) to maximum everything. In any case the frame rate entry box in the properties window is grayed out - can't type anything there.

The program crashes a lot, usually when I am just importing these clips, so using it to correct a hundred clips seems daunting. I am simultaneously working on the crashing problem, and I have been reading Eugenia's suggestions on transcoding the raw clips into a "friendlier" format before importing them for editing. Maybe I can change the frame rate during that process?

@musicvid: Thanks - you kind of answered my last question. I'm trying version 10 in the hope that it would handle these files better than 9, but it seems about the same. If I buy Cineform and a new drive to accommodate the huge new files, I'll be in it $400. Maybe I should look for an editor that can handle Quicktime. Do you know of one?

The image is kind of jerky and stuttering.

That is exactly what I was referring to.

Why don't you upload a short 7D clip to Mediafire or somewhere?
I have some experience with DNxHD and could give you some starting points.

musicvid - Never tried this before, but just uploaded a short clip to http://www.mediafire.com/?bulbd6o8fhk5gh1. Hope you can find it. I would appreciate any thoughts you have (except critique on the videography. Too late for that.).

Got your clip. Several possibilities, but need to know what your intended output is going to be. DVD, BluRay, Youtube, ?

Here's the problem - "Intel Core 2-6600 at 2.4Ghz, XP Pro SP 3, with 4 GB RAM"

That's a C2D (not a quad or i7) trying to edit 1920x1080 footage or perhaps 1280x720/60p in terms of HD.

I have the same system and work with 60i footage at 1440x1080 AVCHD. I would suggest to follow Eugenia's transcoding tutorial (search her name and Vimeo in the forum and it will pop up). It likely is just your system performance. For the footage you are editing you probably need more horsepower.

Hi Mark, some of the most overpowered systems available have trouble with 5D/7D footage. It is even more cantankerous than "full" AVCHD 60i. I mentioned that many (most?) pros transcode to Cineform, but the OP has expressed a wish to avoid that cost.

Going from 60p to 30p, depending on his output, presents its own special set of considerations; for instance, doing it in the transcode stage (at least with DNxHD) blends rather than discards, which may not produce the sharpest results. I am willing to run some tests with his footage once we nail down his output expectations. If you would like to do the same, I'm sure it will be helpful.

Output: This will end up on the web, embedded in a web site. Of course I'll send it to Youtube and Facebook also, but they will mess with it. It will run less than 6 minutes. I'll make a DVD, too, but that will be purely secondary.

BTW, I guess I can get a short trial of Cineform NeoScene. I may do that. Since I don't have an HD camera myself I might not have this problem again for a while. Normally I shoot SD DV and capture it the old fashioned way. Old school, but it works.

Output: This will end up on the web, embedded in a web site.

Flash-compatible delivery (recommended), or something else?
Dimensions - 1280x720 or something else?

I've got some specific ideas for you. None will cost you a cent.

"doing it in the transcode stage (at least with DNxHD) blends rather than discards, which may not produce the sharpest results"

If you set project properties to 30p and then set the clip to "disable resampling" then Vegas will discard inbetween frames before serving to the codec's encoder. And, i agree that discarding is preferable. If the original source had been 30p then those inbetween frames wouldn't have existed anyway.

You beat me too it, Kelly, and thanks. That is going to be my next suggestion, but "after" running some trials with the actual footage and desired output, as part of an inclusive tutorial for the OP.

My "stupid" question at this point is still whether the framerate conversion makes any difference whether at the intermediate stage or at the final render stage, and if not (as I assume), whether the former will result in any performance improvement on the timeline. Unlike Mr. Spock, logic has failed me on occasion, thus an overabundance of caution and reality testing.

;?)

I'll go with your recommendation on Flash compatibility. I haven't done this before, but I will have some freedom in determining the final look. As for size, I want it to look decent but load (relatively) quickly. It will be going to the general public, so we won't know what systems or connection speeds we will be dealing with. We're ruling out dial-up, though. 1280X720 would be too big, I think. I don't need it to be HD, but probably should stay wide format.

OK, here 'ya go.
http://shell.dim.com/~musicvid/30p.swf

As an intermediate, I used DNxHD 720 30p with Resampling turned off. Plays smooth as silk in Vegas preview, and my notebook is dumber than yours.

I realize it will be a chore converting all those clips this way. Perhaps you could drop them all on the timeline and double-click each clip, then render it as a loop region. (I tried Mpeg-Streamclip to batch the render, but I got a bad gamma shift no matter which colorspace I chose in DNxHD).

The second step, rendering to Sony AVC 480p at 3Mbs, is just a suggestion. I understand you may have to use MP4 Fast Start to get it right for streaming (I use Handbrake for mp4, but that's a separate learning curve).

Let me know if this helps -- it's certainly not the only approach to this. You might suggest to your friend that he use 720 30p in the future; 60p is just overkill.

musicvid - This is incredible. An incredible amount of work, an incredible amount of great information for me (and others) and incredibly generous of you! Thank you so much. I'll review the screen shots and give the process a try as soon as I can. My weekend is over now, so I may not get to it right away, but I am excited to get back to it, and grateful for your help.

Yeah, it seems like I did a lot of work, doesn't it? I'll be more than happy to let you think that.

However, that DemoCreator I got free from gaotd is so intuitive, all I have to do is go through the drill, hide the redundant slides, and tweak the timing.
20-25 min. punch-to-print. The thing makes me look like a genius at board meetings (I'll let them think that too) . . .