[John Bean]

Of course you can! So long as Vegas can open the video!

If Vegas can not open your video then you are missing the codec for it.

Also, depending on how *powerful* your system is, some high-quality video (high compression+bitrate+complexity) can be too much for your PC to handle.

In that case, you’ll need to either upgrade your system to a more powerful one (latest CPUs, motherboard, RAM, HDD, etc) … or you will have to encode your source video to an intermediate video file that is easier for your system to process and edit in REAL-TIME.

[John Bean]

Do you see interlace artifacts in your Vegas real-time PREVIEW window?

If so, Vegas has not interpreted your source media file correctly.

If this is the case, then when you render out your video as interlaced, Vegas is rendering an interlace video of an incorrectly deinterlaced source video. So, it’s like you are increasing the interlacing factor 2x!

That is why the interlace artifacts in your render video looks terrible!

Like I stated, when *editing*, Vegas will automatically deinterlace your interlace videos – regardless of what your DEINTERLACE METHOD project setting is.

This is because it doesn’t make sense to edit the upper and lower fields of an interlace video separately. You edit the FULL FRAME, hence, Vegas automatically deinterlaces it for you when editing.

So if there are glaring interlace artifacts in your real-time Vegas PREVIEW WINDOW, then some setting is wrong.

How-to verify that Vegas has interpreted your source media properly:

Right click your source media file on the track and go to “Properties”. This will bring up the source’s MEDIA PROPERTIES. Verify that Vegas has interpreted your source media scan type as UPPER FIELD. Also verify that the source media’s FRAME RATE is correct and matches your project setting’s frame rate.

If you are unsure of your source media type information, you can use an external app like GSpot or MediaInfo to see what it says about source media type. Then verify that Vegas has interpreted it properly to match.

Again the two fields to check are:
1. SCAN TYPE
2. FRAME RATE

Post a picture of your source media properties information if you want us to verify.

YOU CAN ALSO TRY THIS:

1. In PROJECT SETTINGS, change your setting for SCAN TYPE to PROGRESSIVE (None).
2. Then render out a PROGRESSIVE video.

If you still see interlace artifacts then Vegas has definitely interpreted your source media file incorrectly.

[John Bean]

Re-installing WINDOWS is a pain in the arse!

Try this first:
You should try a CLEAN re-install Sony Vegas Pro 9 using the latest update build available for Vegas Pro 9.

You can check within Vegas in the HELP menu to find out what build you are currently using. Then check to see if there is a newer build update available for Vegas Pro 9. Click the “Check for Updates” option. Also manually check with the Sony Vegas website for updates.

Note that Vegas is now on Pro 11 build 594/5, so Pro 9 is *OLD*.

[John Bean]

I replied to your other post on “Bad 360p video” here: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/945225

You have incorrectly set your aspect ratio settings.

[John Bean]

What do you mean by your video LOOKS HORRIBLE?

Are you talking about the QUALITY (clearness, sharpness, compression, etc.)?

Because from the looks of things, it appears you have setup your project settings incorrectly for ASPECT RATIO.

There are a number of ways to set the correct settings for your aspect ratio. Here is what I suggest:

1. In your PROJECT SETTINGS, change your Pixel Aspect Ratio to SQUARE (1.000). Leave your project as 1920×1080. Verify that your source media really has a frame rate of 29.970. My guess is that your source media has a frame rate of 23.976.

2. Verify your source media is being *interpreted* correctly by Vegas. Check the “media properties” for your source media (right click media and click “properties”). Check that your aspect ratio settings are correct. If not, fix them.

Based on the info you have given, it appears that you source media file is anamorphic HDV 1440×1080-23.976 fps with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.3333. Check the specs for your camera that you used to capture the footage. You can use an external checker like GSpot or MediaInfo to verify that Vegas has correctly interpreted your source media file.

3. Now in your Vegas PREVIEW WINDOW, your video should look fine. There should be no black bars anywhere. The preview should be 16:9. If not then you need to check steps 1-2 again.

4. Now when you render for YouTube, you can use any of the YouTube templates for 1920x1080p. Make sure the frame rate matches your project as well. There are YouTube templates for Sony AVC and MainConcept AVC/MP4. Either one is good.

For higher quality, increase the encoding bit rate. The higher the bit-rate, the better quality you will give to YouTube. YouTube does not define a maximum allowable bitrate. But I’ve done 16 Mbps successfully before.

Good luck!

[John Bean]

I also just wanted to add that using a DEINTERLACE METHOD of “NONE” is a valid option even when you have interlaced source videos that your want to eventually render out as PROGRESSIVE.

It all really depends on how your interlace source video was capture and created in the first place.

For example, if you are using a camera that can capture true full 1920×1080 frames but the camera has to split those frames into upper and lower fields only because of storage bandwidth limitations (slow write to disk/hdd speed), then a DEINTERLACE METHOD of NONE is the correct choice. Here, the upper and lower fields were captured at the exact same point in time. Hence, you will not see any interlace artifacts when the upper and lower fields are joined to create the full frame again.

However, if your camera can only capture 1920×1080 frames using two separate captures for upper and lower fields, then there will obviously be a slight change in time between the upper and lower fields. Here the upper and lower fields were capture at two separate points in time. Hence, you will see interlace artifacts when the full frame is re-created.

[John Bean]

If you used one of Vegas DVDa templates, then DVDa should not have to re-encode your video.

Now because your DVDa project is 16:9 (for your menus and stuff), what you need to do is as follows:

1. Open your project OPTIMIZE settings. Since your global project setting is 16:9 video, you will need to override your global project setting for all your 4:3 videos. Simply click the VIDEO tab for your 4:3 videos and choose to override your global project setting and select 4:3 aspect ratio.

Also, if your project global bit-rate setting is less than your video bit-rate, DVDa will re-encode. So either increase your project global bit-rate setting or override the global bite-rate setting from the VIDEO tab.

(Alternatively, you can also re-encode your videos from Vegas to use a bit-rate equal-to or lower than your DVDa project global bit-rate setting.)

[John Bean]

Did you update Windows recently? Sometimes a Windows update will screw up some of your apps.

Are you experiencing similar problems with any other programs? Test with other CPU and memory intensive programs.

Do a MEMORY TEST to see if your RAM is still good. RAM like every-thing else will wear down with intensive heavy use. If your RAM has some bad sectors, when your system hits any of those bad sectors, things will crash.

Just some hints to help you out!

[John Bean]

Also make sure that Vegas has interpreted your file correctly.

See the media properties for your file. Then see if it matches up with GSpot or MediaInfo.

Vegas may not have interpreted your file properly. Make sure Vegas knows the correct video codec.

[John Bean]

Technically, when editing on the timeline, Vegas treats every source media file like it was PROGRESSIVE.

It doesn’t really make sense to edit interlaced videos using the two fields that make up the frame. I mean, imagine editing the upper and lower fields separately like they were in their own separate frame window.

So when editing, Vegas automatic deinterlaces your interlaced video. Vegas does this regardless of whether you set the DEINTERLACE METHOD setting for your project properties or not. But you must check to make sure that Vegas has interpreted your source media files properly as either UPPER or LOWER field interlaced.

If Vegas has properly interpreted your interlace source media files, then you should not see any interlace artifacts (ie. stripes) in your Vegas real-time preview window when editing. If in the preview window you still see interlace lines, then Vegas has not interpreted your source media properly.

The DEINTERLACE METHOD setting in your project properties is important in two areas:

1. If your PROJECT SETTINGS is set to PROGRESSIVE, then you need to tell Vegas what DEINTERLACE METHOD to use.

2. If you PROJECT SETTINGS is set to UPPER or LOWER FIELD interlace, but you want to render as a PROGRESSIVE video, then the DEINTERLACE METHOD must be set for Vegas to deinterlace your final render out file.

If you want to reduce INTERLACE FLICKER more, there is also a REDUCE INTERLACE FLICKER option for source media properties.

Now you also need to pay attention to the FRAME RATE.

If you select a PROJECT SETTING frame-rate that is different from your interlaced video frame-rate, then that can cause your video to have an undesirably effects. Or if you select a RENDER-AS frame-rate for your final render that is different from your source media files, you will most likely see some undesirable effects.

Make sure to select a COMPATIBLE frame-rate for your PROJECT SETTINGS and RENDER-AS setting. If need be, play around with the re-sampling switches. In some situations, it looks better to just turn off re-sampling. For example, when doing a conversion from 29.97 to 23.976 frame-rate.

Good luck!