Article on how to transcode Panasonic GH4 4k footage for Sony Vegas

[Dave Haynie]

He’s basically claiming that Vegas doesn’t handle AVCHD video very well. Which is of course false, as long as you have a video-editing-worthy system.

Signs that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about include:

Actually, Vegas can render M2TS to AVI HD or WMV HD. However, the long rendering time will make you crazy when you have a large file. And sometimes choppy rendering from M2TS to AVI, MOV, or WMV will be very annoying.

Ok… AVI isn’t a format, it’s a container. There are only a few things, Cineform perhaps, that live in AVIs and would be a reasonable target for any intermediate format. I assume he’s got a weak PC and needs to find an intermediate CODEC. Worse yet, he’s mentioning WMV. No one with half a clue about video editing would chose WMV for editing… or much of anything else. So this pretty much suggests, all by itself, that the dude’s not worth listening to.

Not to mention, in a literal sea of Windows-based transcoding programs (including freebies like XMedia Recode) he’s recommending a Mac-based commercial transcoding program. Which is apparently also available for Windows. Checking this guy out, and the application, is seems that all he ever does on Experience Project is write about converting one format to another using Aunsoft. Given the particulars of the English in his article vs. their website, he might actually be Aunsoft.

So, the GH4 is going to give you H.264/AVC in your choice of wrappers and 4K versions. The wrapper probably doesn’t matter all that much, unless they’ve munged the specs on one of them… not likely, but I’ve seen cameras that did. Expect 4K video to run about 1/4 the speed of HD video on your PC. Do you need to use an intermediate format? Maybe. I’d like to be joining that experiment, but the GH4 is not in my cards yet, though I am drooling a bit at the quick rise of 4K.

-Dave

[Dave Haynie]

Oh.. that’s interesting. The name of the company he’s recommending, which I won’t say here for soon-to-be-obvious reasons, triggered The Cow’s “bad words filter”, and sent my first post to a moderator. That’s not actually that much of a shock. Read the details, if the post gets posted, but this guy is basically just trying to sell a program, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about in regard to Vegas.

-Dave

[Angelo Mike]

Ha. Thanks for the response. Glad to see all that extra work isn’t necessary. I didn’t even realize how uninformed he must be when he recommended rendering to WMV.

I do plan to edit on proxies with GH4 footage, but I can ignore the author’s recommendations, then.

[Steve Rhoden]

Good point Dave.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[Colin Morris]

Hey Guys,
I managed to track down a download of the GH4 Yucatan footage by Brian Harvey. It’s 3840 X 2160. I downloaded it and dropped it on the SVP12 timeline in a few seconds with no problems.(3 mins long) Did not even see any peaks building. Have 4 video tracks running with no problem. Rendering a 15 second clip to 1080p Mp4 with cuts, fades, and a few spherize and radial pixelate FX took 45 seconds. My preview is set at half on the 2nd monitor and the whole frame looks stunning. I have an i7 3.4 GHz and a average video card with GPU off. I don’t think you will need to transcode in SVP with a good machine.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e5zme3h7mvrusjy/%5BNEW%5D%20Panasonic%20LUMIX%20GH4%20%20Light%20of%20the%20Yucatan%20%20in%204K%20by%20Bryan%20Harvey.mp4

Colin Mendez Morris
ArsMusica
http://www.arsmusica.ca

[Steve Rhoden]

Good Colin, No need for any transcoding.
Person writing the article doesn’t know much about Vegas.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[Angelo Mike]

That’s great info, Colin.

I wonder what will downsample the 4k, 8 bit, 420 footage to 1080p, 10 bit, 444 footage, as I’ve read on EOSHD can be done with this camera. That’s the workflow challenge I’m wondering about. And then, of course, grading 444 footage, which I’d probably have to get software for, like Davinci Resolve.

[Angelo Mike]

I tried putting that footage on my Vegas Pro 11 timeline and it can’t be opened. Do I just need to upgrade?

[Colin Morris]

Yes. I have SVP 12 and I know from experience it handles the more recent MP4 variations. Of course after I saw the post I just had to get out of bed and boot up my workstation…
OK I have SVP 11 build 521 and it took about 20 secs to show the 1st frame in the preview, and then it plays choppy with no sound. I’m on build 563 in SVP 12.
BTW-the Panasonic specs are pretty extensive for motion capture. Any ideas regarding the specs?

Colin Mendez Morris
ArsMusica
http://www.arsmusica.ca

[Steve Rhoden]

Yes Angelo, you have to upgrade to Vegas 12, or simply wait a little
and grab Vegas 13 instead.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019