Delivery Formats, Editing Formats, what to do?

[John Rofrano]

[JF Baez] “Mocha pro doesnt support MTS video files (and this is the format of all my videos). I had to convert clips to a MP4 using handbrake but I think handbrake is made for delivery, not for editing (correct me if I am wrong).”

You are asking the right questions and you are correct that Handbreak is best used for delivery formats like MP4 because you will loose quality using this format for editing.

[JF Baez] “So, I wanted to know, If there is a workaround to convert my raw video files (MTS) to a editing format (compatible with mocha and vegas aswell) so then, I could edit them without worries about compatibility (and avoid vegas crashing while editing).”

What you want to do is use a Digital Intermediary format for multi-program workflow. The best one I have found is CineForm. There are paid versions but there is also free version of the codec which comes with GoPro Studio (which is also free). If you convert your MTS files to CineForm AVI files that should work well in Mocha. You can render back and forth to CineForm many times and not see any degradation in quality.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Jf Baez]

Thanks, J.R., I will check and I will give it a try.

[Jf Baez]

oh God I cant believe this could turn to be so complicated, I will add some screenshots.

I was looking for the CINEFORM codec, in my sony vegas it appears under the codec list, but when I try to render, nothing happened, it seems like I dont have the codect itself

(I remember having the gopro studio installed on my computer but since it didnt worked, and after uninstalling it my vegas’s crash rate decreased a lot)

in the other hand, I try to look for more options, in this case, I found the suggestions.

I downloaded the lagarith codec,but when I render a 25 mb video clip (just 24 secs) , it rendered it into a 1.14 gb file (geez)

since my goal is to get a good intermediate codec, this is not suitable because i would want to render for example 10 mins of video just to go easier with vegas at the moment of editing longers projects (from 15 to 40 minutes or more).

the template doesnt allow me to set a bit rate or anything related so I have no control about the output file size.

then, I try with the MFX 422, but the problem with it is, that it doesnt allow me to set 1920x1080p @60fps, it only allows me to set 720p@60fps or 1080p@30fps.

so, After hours of googling around, reading and searching, I think I am running out of options, just for the record, my projects must be 1080p @60fps for internet (youtube) broadcast.

all i want is simple but still so hard to find, I guess i am just running out of options 🙁

[John Rofrano]

[JF Baez] “I was looking for the CINEFORM codec, in my sony vegas it appears under the codec list, but when I try to render, nothing happened, it seems like I dont have the codect itself “

You need to install GoPro Studio for this to work. You might also need to change the Sony template to point to the GoPro Studio version of the codec because CineForm has changed it’s name several times.

[JF Baez] “I downloaded the lagarith codec,but when I render a 25 mb video clip (just 24 secs) , it rendered it into a 1.14 gb file (geez) …the template doesnt allow me to set a bit rate or anything related so I have no control about the output file size.”

That’s because it’s lossless. It won’t drop any bits so you can’t tell it how many bits to use. It will use as many as it needs to not loose any information That’s what a lossless codec does.

[JF Baez] “all i want is simple but still so hard to find, I guess i am just running out of options :(“

Well… it is that simple if you own a Mac because you would use Apple ProRes 422, no questions asked. It’s a pity that Sony doesn’t provide a digital intermediary codec like Apple does but they have always leaned towards editing native formats.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Jf Baez]

I am sorry for re-activate this thread again but I think I found a work-around at least to use with sony vegas, but I wanted to know what do you think???

I just discovered this format from the rendering options in vegas:

Sony MXF HDCAM SR 422…

despite the fact that I cant configure options for example bit-rate, but I can change the frame-rate, and the frame size as well, I am not sure if this is a good format at least to use in vegas (I am not sure if it is lossy, visually loss-less, but judging by the file sizes, I think is good.

I an still looking my way to find a work-around with mocha, I could get the cineform codec but it seems that the free version doesnt let you render videos in vegas. If I resolve something I will post because it can help people trying to find a solution.

[John Rofrano]

[JF Baez] “I could get the cineform codec but it seems that the free version doesnt let you render videos in vegas. If I resolve something I will post because it can help people trying to find a solution.”

I have this working with just the Cineform codec from the free GoPro Studio. When you make your AVI template in Vegas Pro, make sure that you select CineForm Codec as the format and then press the Customize… button and select YUV 4:2:2 as the Encoded format and Medium as the Encoded quality. Then save this template and it will render.

As far as using Sony MXF HDCAM SR 422, will Mocha read this? If it will then it’s probably fine to use since the bit rate is so high you should see much degradation in quality with just one round-trip.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com