New to Sony Vegas Pro 11 – best rendering format/setting

[Mike Kujbida]

You are correct Phil.
The other thing that needs clarification is that Vegas doesn’t )and can’t) render VOB files so you don’t need to worry about overwriting your source files.
The only way a VOB gets created is when you author a DVD.

[Bruce Aguinaldo]

Yes, it helps and thanks.

IG.

[Bruce Aguinaldo]

I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding on the process (at least what “not” to do) and I’m looking forward to getting back into my video editing.

Thanks again for everyone’s help and sorry for all the “newbie” questions.

Bruce
IG.

[Bruce Aguinaldo]

Recently, I shared with a friend that I was “converting my VHS tapes to DVD” and she asked if I was interested in converting her tapes for her.

Since I’m retired and could use some extra money I told her I’d check into what equipment I needed and get back to her.

Since I no longer have the Panasonic VHS to DVD machine I’d need to purchase a Canopus for VHS and VHS-C.

What I need to know is what devise(s) do I need to convert Hi-8 and MiniDV to DVD’s?

Is buying used cameras the best way to go or try and buy players?

Thanks.

IG.

[Bob Peterson]

I suggested recapture because I am doing something very much like what you are doing. My original conversion was done by an HP device which was probably very comparable to what you used to create your disks (and VOB files).

I have now run through the process and can confirm that the best choice is to recapture. I am assuming that you still want the best quality in your final render. The first consideration is tape degradation due to aging. This issue seems very overblown to me. I have seen exactly one tape which has suffered from visible degradation, and many of my tapes have not been stored under very good conditions. Naturally, if the tape is visibly degraded, recapture will not work.

When I used a VHS camera, I tended to fill the tape. One tape I recaptured today had 1 hour and 45 minutes of material. The capture, using a camera to convert to DV, produced a file which has 21.5 gigabytes. The DVD produced by my HP conversion unit would hold somewhat less than 4.7 gigabytes. That means it had to use a bit rate for the render of about 5.7 megabits per second. When I rendered a DVD from my DV file, I had the luxury of using a bit rate of 8.5 megabits per second because I could limit how much was on one disk. My recaptured video had a noticeably sharper resolution than the DVD produced by the HP device about 10 years ago. In addition, the HP device tried to “improve” the video by boosting the saturation. Bright reds, for example, looked like they were glowing, and bled into adjacent areas further obscuring details. The recaptured video had well saturated color which looked quite natural, and which looked much better than the HP produced video. The recapture video has a much higher quality in spite of any tape degradation.

The time required to recapture was trivial. Simply start the capture process, and walk away.

The expense for me is negligible. I already have the needed camera. While the Canopus unit surely will produce better quality, my guess is that the improvement would not be worth the cost. I am satisfied with what my old camera produces. You can probably find a comparable or better camera for a very low price on ebay. All you need is the electronics to perform the pass through conversion to DV. You will not need good quality in the camera’s transport, lens, etc. BTW, my camera is a Sony DCR-TRV17.

Good luck! I’m glad I checked it out, and found a substantial quality improvement.

[Bruce Aguinaldo]

I go back and forth about re-coverting my VHS tapes especially when I see one section of my video looks like its got a pink filter on it.

I’m bummed because I gave away my two old video camera (I didn’t think I’d ever need them again).

I’m considering buying a Hi-8 and MiniDV camera(s) as the player decks are much too expensive.

I really like the idea of the Canopus but so far the ebay bids are more than I want to spend.

I assume I can run my VHS tapes via the VCR player through an Hi-8 camera, run Hi-8 tapes directly through the Hi-8 camera and run MiniDV tapes also directly through the MiniDV camera.

Total costs to buy two cameras is around $250 plus if I decide to a buy a Canopus they’re around $400 for VHS, and Hi-8’s.

IG

[Bob Peterson]

I can’t advise you on the camera since I don’t routinely follow those, but a used camera on ebay should be substantially less than $250. Just be sure that the camera has the pass through feature, and get verification from the seller that the camera does work. If you want a camera that you will actually use as a camera, then you may want to spend more money.

[August Taconi]

Bruce,

Here’s my 2cents worth. I use a JVC SVHS Deck that burns a DVD internally. I copy all the files from the DVD Disk to my editing system. Then I change the VOB extention to MPG and drag that onto the Vegas Timeline. Since the files are mpeg, Vegas renders without compression.
Give it a try.

August