File format/settings for best performance in editing

[D. Eric franks]

Unfortunately, you have discovered the big trade off. Smaller files use more efficient and more computationally intensive encoding and are harder on your computer in terms of smooth playback. Yes, you can covert these to a less efficient and easier to playback format, but these files are going to be larger. So you have a choice.

Still, there may be something you can do: large 1GB VOB files (MPEG-2 encoding) make Vegas very, very cranky, so going in, finding short sections that you want, rendering (trim) those out to the AVI format using DV encoding and then delete the VOB files should save you some space AND the DV-AVI files are incredibly pleasant to work with in Vegas.

__________
They say that ninety percent of TV is junk. But, ninety percent of everything is junk.
— Gene Roddenberry
https://videopia.org

[Melissa Smith]

Thanks for the reply! I found a format that’s smaller and works better, with these settings: mpg, 640×480, MPEG-1, 30 fps…but it takes forever to render! Really, as I type this it’s at 13%, it’s been going for 10 minutes and the clip is probably 30 seconds D: So I want to try your method before I stick with this, sorry about being a noob, but how do you do DV encoding? I also realize my computer might need some major cleaning -_-

[D. Eric franks]

Oh, no noob apologies – none of this stuff is intuitive, fast or easy (at first anyhow).

MPEG-1 is definitely going to be more pleasant to play with, performance wise, and the file size will be smaller, but I don’t think you are going to be happy with the quality (depends on what you are using this for, I suppose). And, yea, a 70-minute render on a 30-second clip is definitely excessive. So beyond figuring out the right codec, there’s something else going on here.

Fortunately, it might be a matter of $100 and a new hard disk drive, which, as far as computer problems are concerned is about as cheap and easy as you can get away with. As you get more and more into video editing, hard drives are more and more like basements: you always fill ’em up, no matter how big it seems at first.

OK, DV codec time. I’d render the 30-second clips out to DV-AVI files:

(1) File menu > Render As
(2) Save as type = “Video for Windows (*.avi)”
(3) Click the Custom button.
(4) Template = “NTSC DV” (or “NTSC DV Widescreen”)

The reason I’m recommending this is that your DVD-Video disc is 720×480 and the NTSC DV codec is 720×480 (and your project should use that resolution as well), so it’s a pretty straightforward conversion. Even if you mix up the standard with widescreen bit (your video will looked squashed), you can toggle the pixel aspect ratio with a click or two, so it’s not even a big deal to get that wrong.

Here’s the downside: a 30-second clip is going to be about 100 MB (where MPEG-2 on the DVD is probably right around 20 MB per 30-second clip and MPEG-1 might be half that – albeit the quality will stink on the later).

__________
If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man,
sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
— Thurgood Marshall —
https://videopia.org

[Melissa Smith]

Hmm, well I’m just making videos for youtube, so I hope the quality is okay for that. But I’ll look at your method. Thank you!

[Randolph Bulpin]

I am a new comer to COW and just posted a thread with a question about improving the preview in Vegas Platinum. My young son now 8yo is a keen filmmaker, started with animation from still images, preview worked fine. I imported a MOV file, quite long, and the preview is unbearably choppy. If I convert to another format through rendering will this improve the preview performance? Thanking you!