What’s Best? Edit in Native Size or Target Size?

[John Rofrano]

You will get better editing performance by setting you project to the source format and rendering to the target format. Since the aspect ratio of both formats is the same there is no down-side to this. Otherwise you are asking Vegas Pro to convert 1080p to 720p on-the-fly just to playback the timeline and you will most likely get stuttering playback as you add FX and other edit decisions.

~jr

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

[Norm Kaiser]

Thank you, John! Man, you’re a wealth of knowledge.

OK…let me muddy the waters a bit.

My cameras shoot 1080p 30PFS but records it to a 60i stream.

I am producing a wrestling TV show that mixes actual match footage with backstage interviews.

I deliver the show to TV stations at 720p.

I tend to do some zooming and reframing of the backstage interviews in post to get the subjects squared up in the frame. So what I’ve been doing is editing each interview as a separate project and then import each interview subproject into one main project.

So since I zoom and reframe the interviews, I’ve been setting those interview subprojects at 720p, assuming that gives me more “native” resolution to work with for zooms.

But now I’m reading it would be a better practice for me to edit in the resolution native to my camera, 1080i. But then doesn’t that cause me a problem with the interview subprojects? Should I edit the interviews also as 1080i, even though I’m zooming and panning? If yes, won’t that break down the resolution (i.e., invoke digital zooming)?

[Jack Daniels]

It really depends on your preferences and your computer speed. I would choose to set it to 720p, because it will create less lag if you are previewing in best, and will also prevent you from having to resize. Make sure when you mean resize, that you are chaning the actual number of pixels and not cropping your image.