VHS Footage Rendered Out As Progressive Does Not Look Good

[Jackie Luffy]

Sorry I would like to add that the rendered out file is cropped on the left for some reason, it is not like that in Vegas, wow SD footage is so much more complicated to work with than HD :O

[John Rofrano]

[Jackie Luffy] “Hmmm, I make the project settings “De-interlaced method” to none, and the field order to “Lower field first””

If your source is interlaced you never want to set the deinterlace method to none. That will only cause lines in the output.

[Jackie Luffy] “Footage captured from a Sony DV camera is Interlaced correct? So if that is the case I don’t know why i’m getting lines in the finished video if the project settings are set to none and “lower field first””

You are getting the lines because your source is interlaced and it needs to be deinterlaced if you want to render progressive but you told Vegas not to deinterace it by setting the deinterlace method to none. You should be using Blend Fields instead.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

I agree that’s pretty blocky. How are you rendering? What type and what template are you using?

~jr

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

[Jackie Luffy]

Here are my settings, making them into MP4’s

[John Rofrano]

OK. DV video is not 720×480 in square pixels. It uses a pixel aspect ratio of 0.9091 which when translated to square pills or MP4 is 655×480. So your picture is being stretched at 720 which adds to the softness. Try using the Internet 480p 4:3 template from Sony and see how it looks. Increase the bit rate if you’d like or change the resolution to 655 x 480 and see if that helps.

~jr

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

[Jackie Luffy]

Hey again, I have tried to change the pixel ratio to 0.9091 but I cannot find a setting to change this? When I select “Internet 480p 4:3” setting and go to customize it says that its 1.000 for pixel aspect ratio!

But your right in the properties I can select it to be 0.9091 and even when I right click on each clip on the timeline and go to media it says that these files are indeed 0.9091, I just can’t render them out that way for some reason

[Jackie Luffy]

I have been messing around to try to figure this out and found that the only way I can get into the “Pixel Aspect” in the render settings is if I decide to make my own custom aspect ratio, this gives access to the “Pixel Aspect” menu but 0.9091 is not an option, its only 1.000 and 1.333

[John Rofrano]

[Jackie Luffy] “0.9091 is not an option, its only 1.000 and 1.333”

That’s correct. There is no other aspect ratio but 1.0 for the Internet and computer playback. You have to adjust the resolution instead.

720 x 0.9091 = 654.552

Since there are no fractional pixels we round up to 655 and get 655 x 480 PAR 1.0. So if you are trying to render NTSC DV video for the internet, the correct settings are 655 x 480 with a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 1.0.

~jr

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

[Jackie Luffy]

This is very strange, a few more problems have come up, Everytime I do “custom frame size” in the render settings and make it 655 by 480 it changes to 656 for some reason, each time I click save and click on something else its back to 656 by 480!

My project properties are set to 720 By 480 so I changed that to 655 By 480 to see what happens and in the video preview it shows black bars on the top and bottom of the screen now, I ignored it and went to the render settings and this time it was set to 655 by 480, but now when I click render I get an error message “An error occured while creating the media file, an invalid argument was specified?

I’m not sure I understand why it has to be 655 instead of 720, how is it that in Vegas 720 by 480 shows that it fits the preview box perfectly but when I set it to 655 by 480 it looks wrong because there are black bars on the top and bottom?

I am also not putting these files for internet use, I just want them to be in the best quality so I can store them on my harddrive

Thanks in advance John, this is a tough problem I’m facing I really appreciate the help

[John Rofrano]

[Jackie Luffy] “Everytime I do “custom frame size” in the render settings and make it 655 by 480 it changes to 656 for some reason, each time I click save and click on something else its back to 656 by 480!”

That’s OK. You must have selected format that requires resolution to be in multiples of 8 pixels. 656 is evenly divisible by while 655 isn’t so don’t worry about it. Use 656.

[Jackie Luffy] “My project properties are set to 720 By 480 so I changed that to 655 By 480 to see what happens and in the video preview it shows black bars on the top and bottom of the screen now, I ignored it and went to the render settings and this time it was set to 655 by 480, but now when I click render I get an error message “An error occured while creating the media file, an invalid argument was specified?”

You don’t want to change your project. Your project is already correct. NTSC DV video is 720×480 with a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 0.0901. The black bars were probably because you forgot to change the pixel aspect ratio but as I said… you don’t want to do this Keep your project set to make your DV source video.

[Jackie Luffy] “I’m not sure I understand why it has to be 655 instead of 720, how is it that in Vegas 720 by 480 shows that it fits the preview box perfectly but when I set it to 655 by 480 it looks wrong because there are black bars on the top and bottom?”

Because back in the days of DV, Televisions were Analog and not Digital and they dod not use square pixels. Their pills were slightly thinner so you could fit 720 in the same space as 655 square ones. Computers are digital and only use square pixels. Your problem is caused by the different between square pixels and non-square pixels.

[Jackie Luffy] “I am also not putting these files for internet use, I just want them to be in the best quality so I can store them on my harddrive”

Then I would keep them in their original format and render to Video For Windows (*.avI) with the NTSC DV template.

Why are you trying to render them as progressive video? I thought you had a reason for doing this and I didn’t question you but if you are trying to store these in the best possible format, then the ORIGINAL format is the best! Store them as DV AVI files.

~jr

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