[Aaron Wiesen]

(This managed to become much longer than originally intended. Short version: Jeff has the right formats laid out for you; I use DNxHD.)

Following up on what Jeff has already said: UT, Lagarith, and DNxHD are typically the go-to’s for Windows. “Best,” as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, tends to vary wildly thanks to any number of factors. But this is what I’ve seen from personal experience (I qualify all of this with the distinct possibility that I’m simply doing something wrong…if so, by all means, let me know!):
—
Machine: i7@2.67GHz, ASUS P9X79 (Pro, I think?), 16GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro4000, and separate WD 1TB Black HDDs for Edit/Export
Software: Adobe Premiere CS5/6, Sony Vegas 12, Adobe After Effects CS6, Adobe Media Encoder CS6
—

UT codecs – haven’t actually used them yet, but definitely worth a look (or so I keep reminding myself)

Lagarith – this used to be my preferred lossless edit/archive format. But as more and more footage transitioned to 1080p resolutions, I began noticing awkward stutters/hangs and file sizes that began to bloat as clips became longer (in contrast to the efficiency I saw on shorter, lower resolution material). Nowadays, I keep lagarith around as a, “just in case,” but try to avoid touching anything beyond 720p (depending on your hardware, your milage may vary).

DNxHD – My new standard. I’ll qualify that it is technically lossy, but imperceptible enough that it would take quite a few copy generations before being noticeable (for me at least). But 2 things made it stand out for my workflow: 1. rock-solid performance in my editing programs of choice and 2. when you are working concurrently between Windows and Mac machines, the cross-platform compatibility and .mov wrapper means it will “play nice”. Generally, I also find the different “flavors” of DNxHD line up very closely with ProRes as far as file-size/quality is concerned (A 10-bit DNxHD 220 is about the same size as a ProRes(HQ) and 8-bit DNxHD 145 is very close to ‘standard’ ProRes422).

Finally, I will dare to bring up the slightly controversial x264vfw/H.264 derivative, which can be lossy/lossless – yes, it can be a hassle to find settings you, your rig, and the rest of the internet can agree upon; and yes, as a form of H.264 it’s as hit-or-miss for editing as most all other forms of H.264 (think DSLR footage)…but if you can fight through the tangle of information and come to terms with the footage, you’ll probably find yourself with visually (if not technically) lossless files at maybe half the size of alternatives. (Just laying out the possibilities so you know. Personally, I only use this codec for viewing or to archive something I probably won’t need to touch again.)

Hopefully that was more helpful than confusing. If not, feel free to disregard entirely. ^_^

[Aaron Wiesen]

It’s a great suggestion, and I have looked at the Matrox hardware before. But until we manage to get cleared to purchase new hardware, I need a solution that works with what we have. Thanks though.

[Aaron Wiesen]

Though I’ve already redone the project in HD and re-rendered the finished file to SD (which did work), I decided to try out the lowering resolution idea which does seem to fix things:

While I was rendering out at the “best” settings already, most of these images were in the 8-12MP range. After drastically reducing the resolution (to about 2.5x SD) that strange, suddenly appearing blur went away.

So in the end, problem fixed (and thank you). However, it almost makes me even more curious: why, if this is the case, does the image not consistently lose focus or become blurry? Is there a reason it happens suddenly at a certain crop size?

[Aaron Wiesen]

First off, thanks for the quick reply.

Unfortunately, this is occurring in the final render. I’ve been messing around with some zooming in and out of these images from projects with different settings and what I’m universally noticing is:

SD – the blur appears fairly consistently in previews and renders

HD – the blur does occur at auto preview quality, but does NOT at best quality preview, nor in renders.

I’m still fairly stumped to be honest.

For the time being, my plan is to redo (ugh) the project at HD settings, and later re-render it in SD (hoping the corrected HD image will downres without the odd effect).

[Aaron Wiesen]

“The Media Properties window is there to set the project properties default, not individual clip properties.”

Just for clarification: are we talking about the same properties dialogue?

I don’t mean the Project Properties dialogue, but rather the Media Properties dialogue you get when you ‘Navigate Into’ the clip, select ‘Track Media’ from Media Properties, and then click ‘Media Properties’ from the drop down arrow.

As this window has specific information regarding the individual properties of the clip, I was assuming changes made here should affect clips individually.

[Aaron Wiesen]

“No it can’t.
DVDA is an authoring program, not an editing program so you’ll have to do this in Vegas.”

If that’s what is necessary, no big deal…but why even bother putting a Media Properties window in Architect with selectable settings, if none of them do anything?

[Aaron Wiesen]

Well, if you’re specifically looking for a flash .flv file output from Sony Vegas, my understanding is that it isn’t there.

However, if you simply want a file that can play through Flash (say, for uploading to a personal website), flash is capable of decoding .mp4 files natively. This means you could render out a MainConcept h.264 encoded .mp4 file that would be *almost* ready for internet upload.

I say almost simply because the file won’t be streamable from Vegas (in other words, someone wanting to watch the file from the internet would have to wait until the whole thing was downloaded).

The solution I use for that problem is located here: https://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/09/12/from-dvhdvavchd-to-flash-video/

Just make sure to use the “New method” as it is all-around easier, faster, better than the old method.

[Aaron Wiesen]

Sounds to me like your dealing with the “Vegas doesn’t like quicktime h.264/AAC LC combo” problem.

Check this guy’s post out: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/907838

I know that he states audio/no video, but I’d guess that the issues are related to one another. Also it seems like his solution did the trick in Movie Studio HD, so I’m assuming it’ll probably work for your Platinum version as well.

[Aaron Wiesen]

You may actually be able to hear my sigh of relief across the internet. I’d been meaning to update to 9.0d for a while, but I’ve just been too busy to get around to it. Didn’t think it’d actually mean the difference between the life and death of my project.

At any rate, updating Vegas absolutely did the trick. Many thanks.

[Aaron Wiesen]

So, several days later, and out of other options, I went ahead and bought quicktime pro. Tried out an h.264 render from a dnxhd file (made prior) I’d pulled from vegas, but didn’t get the quality I was hoping for.

I went back into vegas to export a high quality animation, when quicktime decided to throw another surprise at me: now, all .mov files in my timeline have lost video (audio is still present, video does play back in quicktime player, and vegas still recognizes the clip as having a video stream).

The .mov files were h.264 rendered by someone else working off a Mac (GSpot identifies the codec as mp4v, though my codec status says ‘undetermined’ which I think is a new development), however, vegas had no trouble with the files until this update.

I’m fairly certain that the problem originates from the fact that I updated quicktime, and not that this is the pro version as opposed to basic.

I’m assuming there’s probably an easy fix for this problem (such as installing an older version of quicktime), but I’ve got to say that right now I’m feeling more than a little cheated out of $30. Couple that with the fact that I need this material rendered and ready for tomorrow…let’s just say I’m really hoping you guys can pull me out of a tight spot.

*fingers crossed*