[Chris Morley]

Thanks again. So I need to put the levels filter on the events (to convert to studio), AND the reverse levels filter on the preview monitor to, in effect, cancel out the aforementioned conversion (for viewing purposes). I then get the look I want on screen and remove the preview filter before rendering? Is that right? I’m currently working on a project with some AVCHD footage on the timeline too. I take it you just remove preview monitor filter when grading that footage?

[Chris Morley]

Thanks Norman.

So, in order to get the most out of the footage, in terms of grading capability, quality of final output, and in order to ensure i’m rendering out the same video that i’m seeing in the preview window, do i need to do the following in Vegas?..

1) Use 32 bit projects instead of 8 bit.
2) Apply a Sony Levels preset (or tweak manually).

Sorry about my apparent ignorance on this subject but I find that I ‘know’ something deeply technical for a few weeks but then it soon gets forgotten amongst the more pressing needs like earning a living and getting projects finished for clients!! Thankfully there are people like you around to help out!

Cheers

Chris.

[Chris Morley]

Thanks Norman.

So, in order to get the most out of the footage, in terms of grading capability, quality of final output, and in order to ensure i’m rendering out the same video that i’m seeing in the preview window, do i need to do the following in Vegas?..

1) Use 32 bit projects instead of 8 bit.
2) Apply a Sony Levels preset (or tweak manually).

Sorry about my apparent ignorance on this subject but I find that I ‘know’ something deeply technical for a few weeks but then it soon gets forgotten amongst the more pressing needs like earning a living and getting projects finished for clients!! Thankfully there are people like you around to help out!

Cheers

Chris.

[Chris Morley]

Hi there. Many thanks for the reply. So basically I need to use a levels preset to normalise the footage. Does this mean that I’ll be getting rid of some of the information in the file? If so, I guess nobody will really notice! 🙂

Thanks again for the reply.

[Chris Morley]

Thanks for the replies. I’m in the habit of saving my masters over a few Blu-ray disks, and duplicating it on an external drive too. It’s all a bit fiddly and time consuming so i was hoping that starting off with smaller files (as i am with not having to transcode) would mean that i’d also end up with smaller files at the end of it!! As for the saving the originals option, is there an easy way to save only the files used on a timeline? I have Vegasaur which has an archive option but i think that needs to re-render the clip and so who knows what it’s going to turn each clip into.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Chris.

[Chris Morley]

Hi John, many thanks for the reply.

Do you know of any work-arounds for me successfully getting this footage on to BluRay?

Thanks

Chris.

[Chris Morley]

Just thought i’d answer my own question as i’ve just done a bit of experimenting.

When rendering 50fps 720p footage from a HDV 25fps timeline down to SD PAL 25fps 50i (normal PAL DVD settings) it makes a massive difference to render times if you disable resampling, and no difference to resulting file size or quality, as far as i can see.

Just rendered a 2 minute clip and with the resampling enabled it took 8 minutes, and with the resampling disabled it took 4 minutes – both files were identical in size. This is going to save me LOADS of time when making DVD’s for clients as, up until now, i’ve been rendering them with enabled resampling and only stumbled upon this other way by accident. I would have thought that 50p would convert to 50i faster than 25p to 50i but this doesn’t seem to be the case. I guess the rendering time being approximately half is no coincidence.

I haven’t viewed the results on a DVD yet so there might be a subtle difference in how motion is rendered. Might not though.

[Chris Morley]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. Didn’t think about the output fx!

Thanks.

[Chris Morley]

Just like to clarify that when i say 50i I mean 50 fields per second at 25 frames per second – ie normal PAL DVD.

[Chris Morley]

Thanks Mike, you’re often the person who replies to my posts so thanks again!

Just one more question though, about your solution: Won’t that increase the render time quite a bit as i’ll be adding another track? If not, great. If so, do you ever take the time to trim the black event so that it’s only present where necessary?

Cheers

Chris.