Intermediate video format for Sony Vegas 12

[Mike Calla]

Sony mxf great and free.

[Aleksey Tarasov]

I would use Avid DNxHD – free, cross-platform, high quality.

Vegasaur.com – Plugins for Sony Vegas Pro

[John Rofrano]

[Ed Kneler] “What would be the best (lossless) format for those intermediate clips?”

Here are your options in order of decendng quality:

1. The “best” would be uncompressed but that is overkill.
2. Lagarith is a better “lossless” format because it produces smaller files.
3. Sony YUV is also lossless but it produces quite large files. Sony YUV has the disadvantage of only being available in Vegas Pro so it’s a horrible “interchange” format.
4. Sony MXF 422 @ 50Mbps is visually lossless and very high quality. (I would use this)
5. Avid DNxHD is also visually lossless and has the added advantage of being portable across PC and Mac.
6. CineForm is also visually lossless but it’s not free.

I would stick with Sony MXF 422 @ 50Mbps.

~jr

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

[Max Ferrara]

When you say Sony HD camera I think you are referring to a Handycam, not a professional Sony camera. In that case you don’t need an intermediate compressed or lossless format. Just edit your clips as they are in Vegas. You can set a more than an 8 bit workspace if you use many filters.

If you need to cut them to save hdd space or to create a movie from images (you can just import that project in another project, no need to render it) then you can use an mp4 compression with at least 24mbps and it’ll be just fine. As far as I know, no Handycam records better than that.

Cineform and 5dtorgb are good at resampling the red channel, so you can use them for that task if you need that feature, otherwise there’s no need.
Or you could use Prores or DNxHD but it wouldn’t help you either.
Use 5dtorgb, Zeranoe FFmpeg or Cinemartin Cinec as free prores encoders and import back in Vegas when done. It’ll also be slower to edit than your source.

[John Rofrano]

[Max Ferrara] “Use 5dtorgb, Zeranoe FFmpeg or Cinemartin Cinec as free prores encoders and import back in Vegas when done. It’ll also be slower to edit than your source.”

Can you explain how to use 5dtorgb to convert footage for Vegas Pro? I just tried it and it doesn’t work. I dropped an AVCHD file from my Sony camera and it blew up. It simply couldn’t convert it. Then I dropped an MP4 file into it and it created a file that neither Vegas Pro nor QuickTime can play.

Are these workflows that you have personally tried and know work?

~jr

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

[Ed Kneler]

Thank you all for your responses. Question: how do you select “uncompressed” from the output format drop menu? Under which category would it be? Yes I have a Handycam, not a professional Sony Camera, I like photography, but when I travel is nice to bring your pictures together in a kind of slide show. That led me to add some footage from a little camera that does film too (unsatisfactory) and eventually I bought a decent Handycam. I eventually end up with 300 to 500 pictures to which I add video footage. Using Premiere in the past with a very fast computer (mandatory) with 2 raid arrays, it would hang up after several hours of rendering, so I switched to Sony Vegas Pro which I never had problems with. However, I decided not to render all at once based on my previous experience (which might never happen with Vega, but I have never tried to do so far.
As I learned more, I added some effects and filters which will make rendering more challenging, so I am sticking with rendering shorter segments and then assembling them for a final Blue Ray burn. I should try to import a project into another if I do several segments, I am afraid that rendering complex files will give me rendering problems which so far I never experienced with Vegas.
If I end up using Sony MFX 422 at 50, which variation shall I use for Blue Ray final output? There is 60i, 50i and 24p. What wold be the difference. Again thank you all for steering me in the right direction.

[John Rofrano]

[Ed Kneler] “Question: how do you select “uncompressed” from the output format drop menu? Under which category would it be? “

You would have to make a custom template under Video for Windows (*.avi) but you really don’t want to use uncompressed so just forget about it. It’s not worth the trouble.

[Ed Kneler] “(which might never happen with Vega, but I have never tried to do so far.”

Well that was Max’s point. Why don’t you try working with the native files in Vegas Pro first before you solve a problem that you may not have?

[Ed Kneler] “If I end up using Sony MFX 422 at 50, which variation shall I use for Blue Ray final output?”

You can render to MPEG2 or AVC it’s your choice. Both are perfectly fine for Blu-ray. AVC will allow you to get a bit more video on the disc because it results in smaller files. If you are going to edit with your native files and your files are AVCHD, I would render to Sony AVC Blu-ray format. If your camera shoots HDV I would render to MPEG-2 Blu-ray format.

[Ed Kneler] “There is 60i, 50i and 24p. What wold be the difference. “

Use the one that matches your source footage. What is your source?

~jr

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

[Ed Kneler]

I have a Handycam cx560 and I am recording at highest quality FX , 60i frame rate, so I guess that answers my question. Thanks.

[John Rofrano]

[Ed Kneler] “I have a Handycam cx560 and I am recording at highest quality FX , 60i frame rate, so I guess that answers my question.”

Right so that’s an AVCHD camera that shoots 60i and there is absolutely no reason that you should even consider using any intermediary format. Vegas Pro can edit hours of AVCHD quite easily. Just drop your native footage on the timeline and start editing. Then render to Blu-ray AVC and you should be fine.

~jr

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

[Ed Kneler]

Would that still work if I include 200-300 pictures res 1920×1280?
Another reason for avoiding long single projects is that as a novice in editing, more often than not, someting terrible happens by my mistake, like lack of synchronization of sound, or some of my pictures moving unexpectedly when I try to insert a video. This despite saving frequently which I learned to do. So if I ever get so mired that I need to start that section again, I am limiting my damage (and learning in the process) No doubt when my skills are up to par, your suggestion is the way to go. Thanks for all your help!!!