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Can Vegas 5 edit MPEG2
I have always been under the impression that Vegas 5 could only open the video content of an MPEG2 file & that you could not open or edit MPEG2. I forgot this the other day & clicked on a file & not only did the MPEG2 file open both audio & video but it seems that I can cut it. Is this something new or is this now happening because I now have other tools on my machine that Vegas can use?
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6 Replies
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Vegas can edit MPEG.
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Terje A. Bergesen -
Editing Mpeg 2 is nothing new, but keep in mind that Vegas cannot create a new Mpeg file from what you edit without recompressing the (already highly)compressed video.
Gary Kleiner
Learn Vegas and DVD Architect
http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com
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It would depend on the format of that audio. If it was a VOB file with AC3 audio, Vegas 5 would not see the audio. Newly added in Vegas 6.0c is the ability to read the AC3 audio in VOB or MPEG files. Apparently the file you opened had an audio format Vegas could read.
I agree with Gary – you might be able to edit MPEG2 but it is not a desirable thing to do.
Edward Troxel
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This brings up a point I still don’t quite understand. HDV is MPEG-2. If you edit MPEG-2 in Vegas, it will recompress the whole thing on render. In other words, editing HDV with Vegas when the end product is HD quality MPEG-2 seem to be rather far from the ideal solution.
It should be possible to create a project in Vegas that matches the settings in the MPEG-2 file, edit, and have Vegas render only what actually needs re-rendering, as we have with DV. Or at least, one would think it would be possible…
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Terje A. Bergesen -
Yes, HDV is MPEG2 source. However, most recommend going to an intermediate format for editing. In fact, some render from this intermediate format for the final delivery. Others will revert back to the original M2T file for the final render so you’re only getting a single conversion instead of potentially many. The bitrates for the m2t file will also be much higher than you’ll find on a DVD so you’re starting with much more information giving you less quality loss.
Edward Troxel
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I agree that using an intermediate form and then rendering the M2T file only once will probably yield the best result, you will still be rendering the entire MPEG2 stream which seems overkill if only a couple of transitions and some added text here and there is required to render. In other words, why not do what is done with a DV source, so that no render is done where no render is needed. I can’t see that there is a technical reason for this.
As to the higher bitrates for HDV, I am not sure that this means you have more detail to work with. Considering that HDV has much higher resolution and more color information than SD video, I would expect that a significant amount of the increased bitrate is consumed by the increased amount of information needed.
HDV is 25 MB/s where DVD is somewhere around 8-9 MB/s. Three times higher bitrate with a significantly improved resolution and colorspace isn’t that much.
Or perhaps I am completely wrong 🙂
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Terje A. Bergesen
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