[Kelly Griffin] “(1) In my 1080-24p project am I okay to just render MOVs at 29.97, or do I need to do something like render them inside the 24p project as is, start a new project with 1080-60i settings and do it there?”
You can simply render your 24p project as 29.970 and Vegas will add the pulldown necessary to make it compliant. You don’t have to do anything special.
[Kelly Griffin] “(2) How do I accomodate the DVCPRO and MPEG2 specs above? Is “DVCPRO HD” the same thing as “DV/DVCPRO NTSC” in the “Video format” dropdown list for MOV compression? Where can I find the MPEG2 one?”
DVCPRO HD, MPEG2, and AVC/H.264 are three different codecs. You can only use one of them.
Vegas doesn’t come with a DVCPRO HD codec (no it’s not the same as DV/DVCPRO NTSC which is SD). It is a format introduced by Panasonic and is a direct competitor to HDCAM developed by Sony. You would have to purchase RayLight to get that codec (it’s $150).
Vegas can’t render to H264 in a QuickTime MOV container. You would have to buy QuickTime Pro and render twice (once to get out of Vegas and once in QuickTime Pro).
That leaves MPEG2 which Vegas can render but there’s a problem with building a proper template. You said they want “MPEG2 4:2:2Profile@Main Level, upper field first”. The MainConcept MPEG2 encoder that Vegas uses will do 4:2:2 Profile@High Level or 4:2:0 Profile@Main Level but not 4:2:2 Profile@Main. Also Vegas limits 4:2:2 encoding to 15Mbps and I’m sure you would want to use something higher like 25Mbps or even 50Mpbs. (they didn’t specify the bit-rate??? what bit-rate do they want?)
Vegas can produce XDCAM in an MXF container using the HD422 1920×1080-60i 50 Mbps template. This is a great format for delivering HD footage. Ask them if they can ingest Sony XDCAM MXF files?
Otherwise ask them if they will accept MPEG2 4:2:0 Profile@Main Level which is the same quality used on Blu-ray discs.
~jr
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