How to avoid long renders from Vegas

[Mike Kujbida]

[Ken Matson] “How can I tell Vegas to “render with the same format and settings as the video source” ?”

You need to know the exact settings of the source footage and set up a custom render using those settings.
This is a lot harder to do with mpeg-2 files as the original files could have been recorded with a CBR (constant bit rate) or a VBR (variable bit rate).
There’s also the audio settings to deal with.
I’ve read about tools that can attempt to extract this information for you but I’ve never bothered to learn how to use them.

Your computer’s power is another factor as a slower machine will obviously take more time for rendering.

Whenever I need to re-encode an mpeg-2 file, I use a CBR setting of 8,000,000.
As long as the finished project is under 70 min., I don’t worry about anything else.

[Ken Matson]

Thanks … unfortunately, this is a 130 or so minute video. Related question, the audio settings for render don’t seem to show me what type it’s rendering as … e.g. nowhere to pick mp3 or AC3 or whatever?

KenM
Sound Works R&P

[Mike Kujbida]

“unfortunately, this is a 130 or so minute video”

Yuck 🙁
According to the bitrate calculator I use, you’d render using a custom 2-pass VBR setting of 7,544,000 / 4,312,000 / 2,584,000
Even then, the final quality may not look that good.
Try rendering a short section and see for yourself.

“Related question, the audio settings for render don’t seem to show me what type it’s rendering as … e.g. nowhere to pick mp3 or AC3 or whatever?”

Video gets rendered using the settings described above.
Audio gets rendered using the Dolby Digital AC-3 preset.
Give both the same name and render to the same folder.
That way, when you import the video file into DVD Architect, the audio will automatically follow.

[Ken Matson]

So you’re saying Vegas ALWAYS renders AC3 for audio?

KenM
Sound Works R&P

[Mike Kujbida]

You can use PCM (i.e. WAV) files for DVD authoring but the default file type (unless told otherwise) for DVD Architect is AC-3.
If you give it anything other than these two file types, it re-encodes it to AC-3 anyway which increases the DVD prep time.
I always do it the way I described and my DVD authoring time, even for 2 hr. projects, takes a few minutes.

I forgot to mention that the reason mpeg-2 files take so long to render is because that’s meant as a delivery format, not a shooting format.

Out of curiosity, what camcorder are you using?

[Stephen Mann]

“How to avoid long renders from Vegas”

Bone-crushing processor power.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Danny Hays]

If your just peicing parts together with no effects and with the prefference setting “Enable no-recompression of long GOP renders” checked. and rendering to the exact format, you should see “No recompression neseccary” I believe it is in the preview window while rendering, and the render time should be tremdously faster.

[Ken Matson]

I understand that AC3 is what DVDA wants … I just don’t see anywhere to pick “AC3” (or anything else for that matter) in the Vegas render dialog audio tab.

Also – many people advise to render the mpeg2 and the ac3 separately (with same name) to prevent DVDA from re-rendering. Why can’t they be combined in same file from Vegas?

Thanks- learning this stuff ….

KenM
Sound Works R&P

[Ken Matson]

I must not be able to get the exact same format then … I’ve got size, frame rate, etc, but don’t know how to determine bit rate?

KenM
Sound Works R&P

[Ken Matson]

This wasn’t from my camera – client brought files in. Not sure of the camera.

KenM
Sound Works R&P