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Confusion over AVC & MP4 render options
I still have some confusion regarding settings to be used for rendering. I have a project in which about 20% of footage is AVC 1920 x 1080i. The balance is 80% AVC 1920 X 1080P. I asked that the project to match input settings & pointed the program towards to 80% footage which was progressive. The project will end up on a Blu-Ray.
When I go to render the project out I see that MP4 is now listed for rendering & that audio is embedded into the file. Correct me if I’m wrong but I suspect that the video component would be identical whether or not I choose AVC or MP4. I also have been told that if your going to burn a file to Blu-Ray it will end up progressive anyway. Is this correct?
Which settings should I be using? Do you only render to two different streams if the file has to be imported into DVDA? Would you always use AVC or is there any other use for the MP4 file?
Thanks in advance
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3 Replies
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[Paul Gregory] “When I go to render the project out I see that MP4 is now listed for rendering & that audio is embedded into the file. Correct me if I’m wrong but I suspect that the video component would be identical whether or not I choose AVC or MP4.”
You do not want MP4 files and you do not want the audio embedded into the file for Blu-ray rendering. You want to render the video and audio as separate streams. More on this later…
[Paul Gregory] “I also have been told that if your going to burn a file to Blu-Ray it will end up progressive anyway. Is this correct?”
No, not correct. The “official” Blu-ray spec only supports interlaced video for all resolutions except 720p and 24p. So your 1080 video will most likely be 1080i on Blu-ray although “unofficially” some Blu-ray players support 1080p.
[Paul Gregory] “Which settings should I be using? Do you only render to two different streams if the file has to be imported into DVDA? Would you always use AVC or is there any other use for the MP4 file?”
Blu-ray supports MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, or VC-1. Vegas doesn’t support VC-1 so your options are to use the MainConcept MPEG-2 with one of the DVD Architect/Blu-ray templates or the Sony AVC or MainConcept AVC with one of the DVD Architect/Blu-ray templates. Note: based on your version of Vegas Pro, these templates will either say “DVD Architect” or “Blu-ray” but not both. In both cases, render your audio as Dolby Digital AC-3 Pro and give it the same name as the video files but with the .ac3 extension. This will signify that the video and the audio go together to DVD Architect.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks for that reply.
So when do you use MPEG4 or some other codec? Is this something that would only be done if you were rendering to either a PC or to a Media Player like Western Digital WDTV or equivalent?
Thanks in advance
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[Paul Gregory] “So when do you use MPEG4 or some other codec? Is this something that would only be done if you were rendering to either a PC or to a Media Player like Western Digital WDTV or equivalent?”
Don’t get the codec MPEG4/AVC/H.264 confused with the container (i.e., MP4, M2TS, AVC). All of those file extensions are AVC/H.264 codec. You would deliver MP4 for PC/Internet/WDTV, M2TS for AVCHD delivery for further editing, and AVC for Blu-ray delivery. Once again, all of these are using the MPEG4/AVC/H.264 codec. They are just placed in different delivery containers.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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