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Need advice with property options!!
I am a wedding/event videographer and I am trying to setup Vegas pro 11 the best way, but I had a few questions, which options are the best:
Footage is shot using Sony FX7 in 16:9
Under properties
Has an NTSC DV 24p Widescreen (720×480, 23.976 fps)
and a NTSC DV Widescreen options, which option is the best to use for SD footage?there is option for 6bit and 32 bit floating point (video levels) 32bit (full range) not sure which one is the best to use?
What is the “Motion Blur” option?
Has an Deinterlacing option of “None” “Blend Fields” “Interpolate Fields” not sure on that one either?
And PLEASE id there are ANY other options I should adjust let me know!
I am also dealing with editing a wedding shot in very low light, is there anything I can do to take away or at least lessen the grain?
Thanks for the help!!
Paul -
15 Replies
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Match your project video property settings to your source footage. When you do this, Vegas Pro software has fewer calculations and conversions to perform and can thus play each frame of the timeline more efficiently.
In order to be totally sure that your project properties match the properties of your footage, sample one of your files and let Vegas Pro software specify the proper settings for you. To do this, click the Match Media Settings button in the Project Properties window. This opens the Match Media Settings dialog box. In that box, navigate to the location into which you’ve stored your video files, select one of the files from that location, and click Open. Vegas Pro software adjusts the settings in the Project Properties Video tab so that they exactly match the file that you sampled.
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I see great thanks for the help!
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[Paul Gilmore] “Has an NTSC DV 24p Widescreen (720×480, 23.976 fps)
and a NTSC DV Widescreen options, which option is the best to use for SD footage?”The best is to match the frame rate of your footage. Did you shoot in 24p or 60i. Depending on which you used, you should use the corresponding project template.
Are you are shooting HD with the Sony FX7? If so, I would make my project match the FX7 which is HDV 1080-60i (1440×1080, 29.970 fps) and then render out to SD. This will give you the option of delivering HD in the future.
[Paul Gilmore] “there is option for 6bit and 32 bit floating point (video levels) 32bit (full range) not sure which one is the best to use?”
Actually it’s 8-bit and you should not change this setting unless you are fixing a particular color problem. It can have undesirable results at 32-bit if you don’t know what you’re doing. Leave it at 8-bit.
[Paul Gilmore] “What is the “Motion Blur” option?”
If you use a Motion Blur envelope on the Master Video Bus Track, this setting determines the algorithm used. If you don’t use Motion Blur don’t worry about it.
[Paul Gilmore] “Has an Deinterlacing option of “None” “Blend Fields” “Interpolate Fields” not sure on that one either?”
When you are not sure, you should leave it at the default which is Blend Fields. If you are seeing a lot of interlace artifacts during fast motion scenes, you should use Interpolate Fields but you will sacrifice half of your vertical resolution. If you are shooting interlaced video, it should never, ever be set to None unless you plan to do your own deinterlacing via a 3rd party plug-in. Just leave it at Blend Fields. It will only be used if needed.
[Paul Gilmore] “And PLEASE id there are ANY other options I should adjust let me know! “
Actually you should stop making adjustments. 😉 Nothing gets people into trouble quicker than changing settings without knowing what they do or even worse, watching a YouTube video (or several) that give you the “secret formula” to great video or setting everything to the max because clearly the max must be better. The truth is, the engineers at Sony are pretty smart and they make the defaults that the product ships with give the best quality for 99% of the uses because they want their product to produce good video. The “secret formula” is: “…there is no secret formula. Don’t mess with the defaults unless you have a good reason” 🙂
It’s great that you are asking before doing. Most people don’t and only come here after they have totally messed with every setting and nothing works correctly… but I would only make adjustments to solve particular problems. Otherwise, the defaults work great in most cases.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Awesome! Thank you for your time and help.
I mainly shoot weddings and I shoot in SD reason being is the HD tapes are just to expensive for a wedding unless the client is willing to shell out the $$ for it which majority aren’t. So I shoot in SD unless it’s a smaller/shorter project then I’ll shoot HD. However FX-7 I believe shoots in 29fps, when I select NTSC video stream Widescreen it changes it to 23fps, so I need to select the NTSC 24p Widescreen option… Deinterlacing keeps going back to “none” I selected what you suggested then when I reopen properties to double check it’s on, its set to none again, so I’m not sure what’s going on there? I’ll play with it more later. But overall just keep options set to default and it’ll take care of the rest? Sounds good thanks for the help I really appreciate it! -
I shoot all my weddings and events in HDV, even if I am delivering an SD DVD. I have found that in low light situations with HDV, much of the gain or noise gets ‘crunched’ down (I don’t know how else to explain it since that is how it was explained to me) when rendering the DVD, and is less noticeable than if the source footage was DV.
By shooting in HDV, it gives me the option to deliver in blu-ray discs or in files that can be played via a laptop with an HDMI connection. Even if I am delivering in SD only, I feel that there is a noticeable difference in image quality of the DVD if my source footage is HDV. If you add a lot of effects, do extensive colour correction, or do some minor cropping of your footage, starting with an HDV source is a better way to go. Your camera shoots HDV, so why not take advantage of it?
I have used NeatVideo to reduce noise. It can soften your video slightly, but it eliminates the speckle effect of excessive gain.
If your weddings are particularly long, you can use 2 pass VBR rendering to slightly improve the image quality.
I have used 83 minute Panasonic mini-DV tapes to shoot my weddings since 2006 without problems. I use the tapes for a maximum of two weddings, but use them for other unpaid work once they have done two weddings. Buying the Sony HDV tapes is a waste of money IMHO. The Panasonics cost AUD$8 each, and I usually go through about 6-8 at a wedding with 3 cameras running in a multi-cam shoot.
My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6
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I use Sony MiniDV tapes to shoot HD. I use them only once. No problem at all. My camera is Sony 7ZU.
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[Paul Gilmore] “I mainly shoot weddings and I shoot in SD reason being is the HD tapes are just to expensive for a wedding unless the client is willing to shell out the $$ for it which majority aren’t”
Don’t fall for the hype from the tape dealers. Many people use Sony Premium MiniDV tapes in both HDV and SD cameras. But, don’t switch tape brands. You are doing your clients a disservice by shooting in SD when you have HDV available. In general, shoot and edit in the highest resolution available to you and down-convert to the delivery format as late in the process as possible. Most likely when you encode the MPEG2 file for DVDA.
Better yet, go tapeless. In the long run you will be very happy.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
i’d love to go tapeless however doesn’t that mean buying new equipment? I just cant afford new equipment, i have to work with what I have…
back to tapes I was wondering that myself since on the tape it does say miniDV for HDV/DV
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As everyone else as said, use the cheaper tapes and shoot in HDV mode.
One advantage of going SD from an HDV source that hasn’t been mentioned is the ability to zoom/pan/crop your HDV footage.
I shoot HD but still deliver in SD and love the ability to crop a shot, zoom in or pan it if I want to.
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