[John Rofrano]

Keepvid is cool utility but Vegas doesn’t like the MP4 files that it creates. Try using a converter like Super(c) to convert them to a more Vegas friendly format. DV, MJPEG, WMV, HuffYUV, or Lagarith would all be OK.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> I only have 2 layers because I edited and rendered the whole thing in sections and then placed the sections together in a new Vegas file.

What format did you render them too? Maybe Vegas is having a hard time with this format?

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> I’ve never encountered such compatability issues before when it comes to conversion – is this just because HD / AVC is fairly new ?

I’m not sure if it’s the newness or the unwillingness to support a standard. AVCHD is the standard and consumers should look for a standard solution but it’s tough when the AVCHD camera costs $500 and the MPEG4 camera costs $99.

> I spoke to the purchaser of the camera and they showed me articles which they read when choosing it which showed MTS as a poorly supported format

Well it certainly isn’t poorer that an unsupported MP4 format. 😉 They may have misinterpreted what they read. Even a poorly supported standard is still a standard and still has a better chance of interoperability than rolling your own MP4 file that no one supports.

> and they assumed MP4 (supported by Apple et al) as an obvious choice.

Unless you are using a Mac, it doesn’t matter what Apple does or doesn’t support (Besides, I thought Apple didn’t like anything that wasn’t a MOV file). MP4 has several profiles and not all software and cameras support all profiles so it causes a lot of problems.

> Back to my original message, I could really do with a simple, cost effective batch convertor for HD (AVC) encoded MP4’s. Does anyone know of such a thing ?

Have you tried VASST GearShift? It will happily convert all of your MP4 files to Sony YUV or CineForm AVI which edits beautifully in Vegas. This is a specialized version of what is in Ultimate S Pro (and costs a lot less) 😉

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

Just a guess but did you check the timings on the new RAM in the BIOS? Many times the BIOS guesses wrong and you have to set the timings manually. Also be sure they have the proper voltage too.

Also are you using RAM slots that weren’t used before? Could be a fault motherboard. (I assume when you swapped out for Kingston RAM you proved that it wasn’t faulty RAM).

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

That camera shoots miniDV. If you captured via firewire the AVI file on your PC is an exact duplicate of the data on the tape, byte-for-byte. I doubt you have lost any quality.

Mike has a good idea. Preview it on a TV right from the camera to be sure but you said that the capture looked Ok so I assume the TV will too.

The horizontal lines are interlacing. This is because TV’s are interlaced while computer screens are not. This is nothing to worry about and won’t show up on a TV.

If you plan to watch this footage on a PC then you will want to do your final render to progressive mode so that the footage gets deinterlaced. Also the Vegas secondary monitor preview has an option to deinterlace so that the full screen preview doesn’t have these lines. If you final output is to DVD then don’t worry about deinterlacing.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

Looks like you have a Pinnacle DC10 card doing hardware decompression is that right? You will need to install a 3rd party MJPEG codec to work with these files in Vegas.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> Which is the best format/settings to use when you render from Vegas to work in AE? And also the best settings used when you render after applying effects.

I use CineForm to render out of Vegas and back from AE unless I need transparency when coming back from AE in which case I will use Quicktime with the Animation codec.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

> Do I need the nero to burn with these drives.

From the error it looks like your drive might not be supported. Just prepare the folders in DVDA and burn with Nero. Sometimes ya’ gotta go with whatever works.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome. Glad I could help.

~jr

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

[John Rofrano]

What codec does the MP4 file use? if it’s DivX or Xvid, that’s your problem. Vegas doesn’t support those formats.

~jr

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