h.264 to BluRay

[Paul Goelz]

Later that same night…..

I thought I had things under control but I’m now confused. The camera original footage (Canon HF100) as far as I know is 1920 X 1080 60i. Media player shows it as 1920 X 1080. However, Vegas properties claims it is 1440 X 1080. If I set the project properties to 1440 X 1080 with 1.3333:1 pixels, the image is compressed horizontally. If I set it to square pixels, the image is not compressed but it is letterboxed (black above and below).

If I set the project to 1920 X 1080 and square pixels (what I think the file really is), the image is perfect even though it does not agree with the file properties per Vegas.

Properties also shows the file as MPEG-2 Transport Stream (MTS) and does not show what CODEC was used although I know it is h.264. Is the transport stream format perhaps why it is being re-encoded prior to burning a BluRay?

[John Rofrano]

> However, Vegas properties claims it is 1440 X 1080. If I set the project properties to 1440 X 1080 with 1.3333:1 pixels, the image is compressed horizontally. If I set it to square pixels, the image is not compressed but it is letterboxed (black above and below).

You are changing the wrong settings. If Vegas thinks that the media is 1440×1080 and it’s not, then you need to change the MEDIA settings not the project settings. The Canon HF100 is indeed an AVCHD camera that shoots full 1920×1080. You should change your media properties to match this, then change the project to match as well and everything should look correct.

~jr

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

[Paul Goelz]

Ah, that kinda makes sense. I’ll have a look tonight.

If I may, I have a couple other simple questions…..

Is it normal for Vegas to render my project when burning to BluRay given that the original footage is MTS h.264 from the Canon HF100? There are dissolves between clips but other than that, the clips are unaltered. The entire project gets rendered at burn time.

And a second question. I see that I (I think) can buy a copy of DVDA 5 as a stand alone. Will that allow me to render a project in Vegas Studio 4.5 and then use DVDA 5 to burn a BluRay with menus? I have already burned a menuless BluRay from Vegas Studio and it works fine, but I’d like to have full menus.

And last, is there ANY way to automatically add markers at clip boundaries? My projects generally have quite a few clips and I’d like chapter markers at each clip. I can’t believe that there isn’t an automated way to do this! It is very easy in Premiere, but Premiere has serious/terminal issues with larger HD projects and Vegas works flawlessly 100% of the time so I switched from Premiere to Vegas….. and am quite glad I did.

Thanks,
Paul

[John Rofrano]

> Is it normal for Vegas to render my project when burning to BluRay given that the original footage is MTS h.264 from the Canon HF100?

Yes. I have noticed that even when I render HDV from Vegas and drop it back on the timeline and create a Blu-ray disc it still renders so I think it just always renders using this method. If you use DVD Architect to create the Blu-ray disc then you can use “smart-render” in Vegas and it will only render the sections that need it.

> I see that I (I think) can buy a copy of DVDA 5 as a stand alone. Will that allow me to render a project in Vegas Studio 4.5 and then use DVDA 5 to burn a BluRay with menus?

I wasn’t aware that DVD Architect 5 could be purchased separately but yes you could author Blu-ray with menus from any application with this.

> is there ANY way to automatically add markers at clip boundaries?

Not in the Studio version that you have. You would need Vegas Pro and then you could use scripting to automate a lot of tasks like this including placing markers at events.

~jr

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

[Paul Goelz]

> is there ANY way to automatically add markers at clip boundaries?

Not in the Studio version that you have. You would need Vegas Pro and then you could use scripting to automate a lot of tasks like this including placing markers at events.

That is such a shame. I am simply a consumer trying to put together the equivalent of vacation videos. I cannot justify the cost of the Pro version of Vegas. It is beyond me why that feature would have been omitted. Every other editing program I have tried has it. And I’ve settled on Vegas because it works reliably on large projects up to the capacity of a BluRay disk, unlike the others I have tried.

As for the DVDA Pro 5 stand alone purchse, the Sony web site is highly confusing. It is not shown as available for purchase anywhere. However, you can download a trial copy of DVDA Pro 5 and the blurb that accompanies it states that you can own a stand alone copy. I assume you buy it through the nag screen on the trial, since there is nowhere to buy it on the Sony site.

Anyone have any guesses about a Studio version of DVDA (like an upgrade of my DVDA Studio 4.5) that will do BluRay? It is such a pain to be in this transitionary period where nothing is simple and straightforward when it comes to getting what I shoot in glorious 1080i onto a danged BluRay disk 😉

Paul

[Paul Goelz]

You are changing the wrong settings. If Vegas thinks that the media is 1440×1080 and it’s not, then you need to change the MEDIA settings not the project settings. The Canon HF100 is indeed an AVCHD camera that shoots full 1920×1080. You should change your media properties to match this, then change the project to match as well and everything should look correct.

Sorry to be a dunce but how do you change the media settings? I don’t see any way to do it. Right clicking displays parameters…. some can be changed, and some (including resolution) cannot. Vegas insists the files are 1440 X 1080 X 12 and I don’t see a way to change that. Ditto for Windows Explorer.

I should add that if I set the project properties to 1920 X 1080 and square pixels (what the file really is) the project preview looks fine but the media preview looks squashed.

[John Rofrano]

> Vegas insists the files are 1440 X 1080 X 12 and I don’t see a way to change that. Ditto for Windows Explorer.

You are correct. Resolution is not one of the parameters that you can change. This leaves only two choices: either this is a bug in Vegas or the files really are 1440×1080. I know that some AVCHD cameras have two shooting modes. My Sony HDR-CX12 for example can shoot in both 1920×1080 or 1440×1080. Is it possible that your camera can do the same and you really shot in the 1440 mode?

You said that you set the project properties to 1440 X 1080 with 1.3333:1 pixels, the image is compressed horizontally. If you right-click on the Preview window, is Simulate Device Aspect Ratio checked? If it isn’t the image will look squeezed horizontally. You need to have simulation checked to expand the 1.3333 PAR out.

Otherwise you need to contact Sony to log it as a bug. There’s not much else you can do.

~jr

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

[Paul Goelz]

Well I’ll be…. you learn something every day with video these days (I date back to vidicons). Turns out after reading the specs that the HF100 only shoots in 1920 X 1080 in the highest quality setting “FXP” (17Mb/S). All other settings result in 1440 X 1080. I have been using XP+ so the properties shown by Vegas are correct. Setting the Vegas project properties to 1440 X 1080 and the preview to simulate device aspect ratio results in correct display. No idea why Media Player reports the same files as 1920 X 1080.

[Paul Goelz]

I see that I (I think) can buy a copy of DVDA 5 as a stand alone. Will that allow me to render a project in Vegas Studio 4.5 and then use DVDA 5 to burn a BluRay with menus?

I wasn’t aware that DVD Architect 5 could be purchased separately but yes you could author Blu-ray with menus from any application with this.

My bad. Turns out you cannot buy DVD Architect Pro separately. You can download a trial, but to buy it requires that you buy the entire Vegas Pro package. As much as I’d like to burn BluRays with menus, I cannot justify the cost for the Vegas Pro editing suite.

So I’m stuck hoping that Sony releases a version of DVDA Studio that can burn a BluRay disk with a menu.

BTW, I just edited, rendered and burned a four hour BluRay disk from Vegas (ie., sans menu). Sorry if that sounds old hat to you people here, but to this former Premiere Elements user, that is something of a minor miracle. Anything past about 30 minutes of HD on Premiere (any version) and you are on seriously borrowed time 😉

Paul

[John Rofrano]

Yea, that’s what I suspected. Glad that I could point this out. They do this to get greater quality at lower bit-rates so it makes sense. You just need to be aware of it.

~jr

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