Aaron Star
Forum Replies Created
-
Blue-ray by definition is a Sony standard, is there a reason you are not using the Sony AVC BD profiles, or just letting DVDA do the conversion?
If you are having timeline issues with your HDV material, maybe try and convert the material to a 1:1 pixel format like XDCAM.mxf or Cineform.AVI. Then render the timeline picture to MPEG2(DVD) or Sony AVC Blue-ray(BD.)
-
I do not have one of these devices or any sample clips to test, but here are a couple ideas I had when reading this.
I would think you could use the Region batch render script that is free for vegas. Drop the prores clips on the timeline which should show the 4 audio channels below it. Then map those channels to either XDCAM-EX(8-bit Proxy), HDCAM-sr-lite(10-bit proxy), or simply convert the Prores to XAVC-intra. All three of those formats allow for more than 4 channels of audio. Those MXF formats will also not have the QT limits of Prores. Once converted, you should get an XDCAM proxy file with 4 channels of audio that mirror the prores mapping.
The meta data is another issue, and I am not sure how that information is stored. A sample file would help to try and determine that.
It is unfortunate that Sony does not make an Atmos like device that records XAVC-I. A device like that would have been released 1st by Sony in the past. They probably fear that a device like that would cut into their higher end camera and devices.
The FCP MAC or just using AVID with that device might be a better choice.
Have you tried Resolve or the Catalyst products to see if they support the meta data on conversion XAVC-i?
-
If you have to ask the question, then you do not need to worry about editing anything major. Major films and TV represent only about 1% of all the professional video editing done each year. There are so many uses for all the different NLE apps out there, that is the only reason there are so many NLE apps.
Vegas in a networked environment – What could be easier than moving and working with files in Windows across a 10Gb network. If your facility network is lacking, that might be a facility skill set issue. Windows has so many functions for scaling to the largest infrastructure known. I will agree that media management in Vegas is lacking when compared to AVID. AVID has worked a great system for the News cutting people. It all comes down to workflow, project management, scale of the project, and how you want to work. I find the way AVID stores the actual media rather convoluted when compared to simple file system storage of applications like Vegas. File system storage is the same on an external, network drive, or thumb drive. There are no project importing, and then importing media and whatnot. The project and media are either there or its not.
There is a myth out there at multiple people edit on one project at the same time. People do not edit on one timeline at the same time, they work on separate elements of the same master timeline, and then bring together the elements into a single time line. Your choice of NLE is based more on using a single app to alleviate issue of migration between apps. Since Vegas is not a majority market share, there is no way to sell working around the issues with cross application compatibility. Which means you base your facility on what the most editors are using and skilled at using, or you have a need for major media management like a CNN.
-
The monitors I listed are 10-bit capable. The HD 7950 will not pass 10-bit color modes. You need a FirePro device, or a video playback device like a Blackmagic card to pass the 10-bit color info.
The Windows Secondary Display option will work with the right professional GPU.
I do not like external video devices, like USB shuttles and what not. There is more bandwidth available from the PCIe bus with less overhead and latency.
-
There is not a lot of hardware there to edit XDCAM 1080p material, even at only 25P. Proxy editing 720P xdcam, or even SD 16×9 material using Cineform might improve overall experience. Then just switch project file over to the master footage for final render. The fact that your camera already shoots to XDCAM is an optimization right there. You may have to reduce to proxy quality due to low hardware specs.
Here are a couple things I would try. Verify the latest drivers for Win10 for the following devices:
Intel Chipset
NV Video driver
Sound device
Bios is latest from HPVerify that the heat sinks are not clogged on the laptop, most laptops heat sinks are like dryer lint traps after 6 months.
Use Speccy to verify heat is not an issue on the CPU, GPU and chipset during playback. Look at the HDD interface speed and make sure it is matched to both controller and drive capabilities. Check the memory speed and make sure it is operating at max speeds for the chipset. Replace the memory if it is not running at max speed for the chipset. Speccy can help with memory speeds, and “WinSAT mem” from an admin command line will verify bandwidth. Then compare the results to what the chipset should be capable of.
i7-840QM – Memory controller The number of controllers: 1
Memory channels: 2
Supported memory: DDR3-1066, DDR3-1333
Maximum memory bandwidth (GB/s): 21.3Run Memtest86+ through at least one full pass of tests. Windows Memory check is not that great, and system memory needs to be 100% error free for proper operation.
Get a copy of GPU-z from techpowerup and verify that the GPU interface speed is x16 and operating at PCIe 2.0.
The GPU is only capable of 105 GFLOPs and VP11 recommended an AMD GPU capable of at least 1300 GFLOPS. But the I7 is also not a great performer, so try Vegas with GPU enabled and disabled to see what performs better. Probably disabled will perform better, because you don’t want the GPU to hold the CPU back. GPU-z will also show you if the GPU is assisting at all. XDCAM is optimized to take advantage of the GPU, so a slow GPU might actually make things worse.
-
Its probably not Vegas, its probably a Dolby deal. Vegas has to ability to render to AC3 for import into DVDA, but not for editing reasons. The Dolby license probably limits certain abilities unless the Sony were to pay for the full CODEC.
You need an AC3 decoder like the one at https://www.ac3filter.net/
This decoder works well but gives me the creeps since I believe its RU ware. -
“Vegas is to unstable” I don’t find this to be true.
I think:
people will by FCP hardware specified by apple.
people will buy AVID hardware with strict requirements by AVID.
people buy Vegas, then build a DIY PC or attempt to run some deal of the week system/laptop they found because they liked the price. People also buy NV cards so they can run games better, or because that’s what Premier recommends. Then people complain when Vegas crashes or does not perform optimally.
Error free hardware, proper CPU/GPU selection, and optimized data paths are just as critical for Vegas, as AVID and Apple spend on their specs.
My experience with AVID and FCP has been just as filled with crashes and beach balls.
Most the producers already has a workflow in mind which specifies NLE and formats. Vegas generally does not make the list, but that does not mean its not a fully qualified product able to do the job.
There are so many reason why one NLE is used and others are not. Most of the time its due to ignorance. I can remember someone telling me Vegas is 8bit only. All I could do is laugh at them, and then asked how ACES could be supported if it was 8-bit only. NLEs are chosen for legacy corporate/union reasons(AVID), religious and marketing gloss reasons (Apple).
-
https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-31MU97-B-4k-ips-led-monitor – 97% of DCI (which is a color space that fully in compasses NTSC, sRGB, and 709. The specs are pretty good for the price.
or
HP Dreamcolor for HD work.
Calman colorimeter. Its not just a hardware device, also the software is better than other colorimeter devices. The colorimeter software will profile the display you are trying to use and let you know what it cannot display.
AMD W9100, Blackmagic, or AJA video card to support the deep color mode expected by monitor.
Learn how to read the video scopes like histogram, waveform, vectorscope. Learn and understand the differences between sRGB levels, computer RGB levels, and 709 which is what the TV is showing.
Video players like YouTube, Vimeo, or windows media player will shift sRGB levels of codecs, for example h264, to Computer RGB automatically. This will change the look of the picture in subtle ways, so CC needs to be done so that this change is mitigated.
Workflow – shoot camera masters in a 10-bit codec, or down convert RAW/DNG level material to a 10bit Codec in 32-bit Video levels project mode. With Vegas what works best is HDCAM-SR/sr-lite, XAVC-I, or Cineform. DNxHD and Prores are workable, but have issues with a lack of a 64-bit QuickTime.
TV Delivery – the customer will specify the delivery format, most likely XDCAM-422.mxf/XAVC-I(4K), DNxHD/HR.mxf, or Prores.mov
Cinema Projection Delivery – 12-bit DCP, HDCAM, Blue-ray(some festivals will accept) or Prores.
TVs like standard Computer monitors operate in 8-bit modes. This includes most 4K sets sold today. Just because your codec is 10-bit, and the video card / display cable can pass 10-bit to the TV, doesn’t mean the panel will show the extra information. The TV itself needs to have a 10-bit capable panel.
-
With that configuration, I would look at the 390x or Fury-x (current highest single chip GFLOP performance.)
Since you have a 40 lane CPU, you could do 2x 390X, and dedicate one GPU to display, and not plug any cables into the 2nd and enable it in Vegas for compute only. Important not to plug monitors into 2nd card as is the temptation.
AMD has announced their next line up of Polaris GPUs that will support 4K60P and h265 encode and decode. So waiting for the price drop on 300 series might be a good bang for buck.
NVME – upgrade to an M2 slot NVME supported device, or get a PCIe slotted NMVE SSD device that uses the 40 lanes side of the CPU to operate projects from, or at least boot drive. NVME has significant reduction in latency and can handle multiple disk operations simultaneously. This will off load the majority of the disk IO from the DMI bridge. Use SATA ports for longer term project storage.
Make sure the board BIOS is kept up to date, and the DDR4 RAM is running at the board maximum stable frequency. Maxing your memory bandwidth is a low cost upgrade that can be determined with “winsat mem” from an admin command prompt when the system is idle. You want to be able to move the data as quickly as possible between Memory, CPU, and GPU. Make sure all your memory dimms are matched for speed and latency. Single high density DIMM per memory channel is better than filling the memory slots.
-
Since you are inside the Sony fence line, do not overlook HDCAM-SR 422, 444, and SR-lite 422. HDCAM is sort of the HD ProRes codec of Vegas. HDCAM is also a highly optimized edit codec in Vegas. Cineform is good too, but normally the super geeks have to bust out signal quality charts measuring in very small details to show a gain in difference. HDCAM is 10-bit 444 MPEG4-SSTP vs wavelet compression, multi channel audio, embedded closed captioning, and was used for DCP prior to formats that have exceeded the 1080p limits. HDCAM 444 is also what Star Wars Phantom Menace was recorded on.
I would be interested in what you are using to convert your RAW DNG file, and what format workflow you choose.
One workflow for Vegas might be:
DNG develop in RawTherapee and export to 16-bit TIF sequence.
Import TIF sequence to Vegas timeline and render HDCAM, XDCAM, Cineform proxy to edit.
Once editing is complete, swap in TIF sequence and render final 16-bit TIF sequence. This is nice because most DCP programs (openDCP) will ingest TIF sequence for conversion to DCP format. 16-bit Tiff will also maintain the 14-bit color information from your DNG source file, and pass that info along to the 12-bit JP2K format of DCP.
MPEG4 streaming and BD files can be rendered from the Proxy project files.
Clearly your conversions from 16-bit TIF sequence to HDCAM/Cineform have to be done in a 32-bit Vegas project to properly down convert to 10-bit 422 or 444.