What determines how Vegas IMPORTS a file?

[John Rofrano]

Vegas has all kinds of settings for rendering a file but what controls how it OPENS/IMPORTS a file?

It uses the file type as an indicator. If it sees .AVI it uses an AVI importer, if it sees .MP4 it uses an MP4 importer. This is important to understand because these importers will expect to see certain codecs in certain containers. You can’t just place any codec in any container and expect Vegas to read the file even if Vegas supports that codec.

For example, when you bring an MPEG2 file into the timeline, what is Vegas converting that file to so it can be edited and at what resolution, frame rate, etc.?

Vegas will conform the file to the project properties. So an HD file will be downconverted to SD for editing if placed in an SD project. Vegas will also conform frame rates to match the project.

Is that what the “Project Settings” control? I read elsewhere that “Project Settings” only control how the file is displayed in the preview window. Does it do more than that?

Yes it does more. It conforms the media to the project for editing. So 24p that has pull-down will display as 29.970 in a 60i project, while the same media will display at 23.976 on a 24p timeline (i.e., Vegas will remove the pull-down on-the-fly).

~jr

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

[David Shirey]

[Jeff Rippe] “For example, when you bring an MPEG2 file into the timeline, what is Vegas converting that file to so it can be edited and at what resolution, frame rate, etc.?”

Well, technically when you open a media file in Vegas, it doesn’t “convert” anything, in the sense that what you’re editing is the file you imported. It doesn’t make a new file that’s recompressed to your project settings. The project settings do control what’s being shown in the preview window, and your computer is working to convert whatever format you gave it into whatever format the project is in real time.

As a related question, maybe someone can answer this, but If you dragged a 720×480 DV clip into a 1440×1080 HDV timeline then told it to render out a 720×480 clip, wouldn’t it just re-export without any recompression? I don’t think the project settings really affect anything but the preview window in that regard?