Instantly Match Project Settings to Media Format ?

[Mike Kujbida]

There sure is 🙂
File – Properties – Video.
Click on the icon that looks like a folder (Match Media Settings). browse to the folder where your files are, click one of them and than click Open.
Video project properties will now match the selected file’s properties.
If this is a weird file, you can save it as a preset.
Please note that audio is handled separately but, unless it’s a 5.1 project, you usually don’t need to worry about it.

[Jill Simpson]

Thanks – I had never clicked on the unidentified/unlabeled folder icon.

But AUDIO:
If that doesn’t apply the audio settings, then surely I need to manually enter the Sample Rate and Bit Depth, if they are different from my defaults.

[Mike Kujbida]

Jill, just like with the video settings, I have my audio setings match my desired output settings.
Since the majority of my work ends up on DVD, this is set to 16-bit 48K with video being set to NTSC DV (720×480, 29.970 fps).
I’ve set this as my default by clicking the Start all new projects with these settings button at the bottom of the Properties window.
Lastly, both the Video & Audio tabs have folder locations that can be preset.
I do dthe audio on a project by project basis but I have a specific folder (on a separate drive) created for Prerenders.

[John Adler]

Hi Mike,

On a related issue, is it possible to automatically have Vegas render to the same compression format as the source file? (In other words, pick a format and do a smart-render.)

I’m thinking this probably isn’t possible because I’m using Canon 5Dmk2 files which are a flavor of h.264 and although Vegas can read them, I haven’t found a way to smart-render them. I don’t think the option is listed.

Is there an add-on codec I can buy?

Thanks,

John Adler

[Mike Kujbida]

John, all I can suggest is to try to make a custom render setting that matches the source file.
Whether that’s possible in Vegas or not is another issue.
I haven’t seen any footage from this camera so if you can point me to a site that has some, I’ll grab it and play with it.
I tried the Canon web site but, due to high demand, they took the files down.

[John Adler]

Hi Mike,

That’s a very nice offer– thanks. Here’s a link to the files– scroll down to the bottom of this page:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5dmarkii/page19.asp

-John

[John Rofrano]

> On a related issue, is it possible to automatically have Vegas render to the same compression format as the source file? (In other words, pick a format and do a smart-render.)

As Mike said, this is possible if, and only if, it’s a format that Vegas can render to.

> I’m thinking this probably isn’t possible because I’m using Canon 5Dmk2 files which are a flavor of h.264 and although Vegas can read them, I haven’t found a way to smart-render them. I don’t think the option is listed.

That’s correct. What you want is not possible because Vegas cannot render Quicktime H.264. Even if you buy Quicktime Pro like many of us have, Vegas doesn’t use it and only uses the outdated MPEG-4 Video format which is not the same thing.

~jr

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

[Mike Kujbida]

John, I grabbed those files, played with them for a while and here’s what I came up with when I rendered to mp4.

If anyone else knows a better way to do this, please say so.

Load the clip into Vegas and use the Match Media Settings procedure I described earlier.
Select MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4) in the Save as type box.
Select Default Template in the Templatebox.
Click Custom.
Select Best in the Project tab.
Click the Video tab.
Click the Allow source to adjust frame rate box.
Change the Frame Size box to Custom frame size and change the Frame Rate to 30.000.
The following numbers are strictly guesswork on my part so feel free to experiment. They’re also fairly high but I have a quad core so render times were only between 1 and 2 minutes.
Click Constant Bit Rate and change it to 50,000,000 or click Variable Bit Rate and change the numbers to 135,000,000 / 50,000,000.
Save it as a template for future use.
Render the file as an mp4.
With these numbers, I did see a bit of quality difference compared to the original file but it was very minor.
When I looked at the rendered video on the scope display, the rendered video did get reduced from a colour range of 0-255 to 16-235 which meant that whites were clipped.

[John Adler]

I’ll give those MP4 settings a try. Mike, the clipping problem is supposed to be solved if you have the latest version of Quicktime.

Thanks again,

John

[Mike Kujbida]

John, I’m running QT 7.5.5 (the free version, not QT Pro) which is the latest version.
Good luck with your experiments 🙂