Norman Black
Forum Replies Created
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To fit a video into a certain file size you can easily calculate your average bitrate which is what you will enter into the render as template.
If your video bitrate is 3Mbps (megabits per second) and audio is 160Kbps (kilobits per second), then you have a total bitrate of 3.160Mbps. Divide this by 8 to get bytes. Now you have the number of bytes per second for your encode. Just multiply by the number of seconds of your video to get bytes for the whole video.
Encoding to AVC will get you the best video quality for a smaller bitrate verses other codecs. I prefer to use Sony AVC.
If you want to try for low bitrates to keep your file sizes down then neither of the AVC encoders in Vegas are all that good at low bitrates. In this case I would suggest you encode in Vegas at a high bitrate and use Handbrake (x264 encoder) to encode to your final bitrate. You will be surprised how low a bitrate you can go with Handbrake and get a similar quality to the encoders in Vegas. A lower bitrate just gets your files sizes smaller.
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Have you applied the Stabilize effect as a Media FX. You cannot apply it as a track or event fx.
When I add the effect as an event fx all options are disabled and there is a box below those controls that states the effect must be applied as a media fx. This bottom description box can be closed.
When I add as a media fx then the controls are not disabled and there is a box below the controls stating that apply must be selected.
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You are probably better off rendering an MP4 file using Sony AVC or Mainconcept AVC.
The free Quicktime does not support AVC or mpeg-2 encoding. The other codecs are poor. Quicktime Pro probably has AVC but in general it is probably best to avoid Quicktime if you can. Less potential problems. One less cook in the kitchen.
If your video is HD 720 or 1080, then the “Internet” templates in Sony and Mainconcept AVC are a good start and adjust the options as necessary.
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[Anna Merry] “Plug-In
Name: qt7plug.dll
Format: QuickTime 7What does it mean?”
It means that Vegas has nothing to do with reading your media files. It goes through Quicktime to read the media files.
You never mentioned what codec was used to encode the file. This was one of Grazie’s questions.
Even if Quicktime has installed support on your PC for your codec sometimes Vegas does not like the delivery from Qt and you can have compatibility problems.
Can I infer from your original post that one or a few of these files works fine, but only when you have many files you have a problem?
If this is true then you will want to get the heck away from Quicktime and encode to something else, or if you must encode to Quicktime then encoding to AVC/H.264 and PCM audio in the Quicktime encode will allow Vegas to bypass Quicktime and read your files directly.
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additionally to what Grazie asks…
With the Magic Lantern reference it sounds like you have Canon DSLR footage. With this footage (Canon/Nikon/Panasonic DSLR), Vegas bypasses Quicktime and decodes the files directly itself. You can check this.
Right click a media file, select properties and look at the “general” tab in the dialog. Scroll to the bottom and what plug-in does Vegas say it is using.
compoundplug means Vegas is importing directly.
qtplug means Vegas is going through Quicktime. -
Another non Twixtor option is Prodad ReSpeedr. It is stand alone and thus you get a render out of it to use.
It is an optical flow resampler like twixtor, but since it is stand alone you can specify the output frame rate of its render.
If you do not change the speed slower/faster then in effect you just get a frame rate resample. Currently selling for $80 US with a free trial.
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I think it would be in Sony’s best interest to add a project or application preference to normalize known full range input to the Studio range.
The frequency of this too dark, crushed blacks question is a problem for Sony Vegas. This and other forums need a “sticky” thread to answer this. The “problem” being that people can think Vegas outputs poor quality video and is unprofessional.
Also, why the Vegas application preview windows does not have a studio to computer option like the secondary preview device is beyond me. The application preview window is by definition on a computer display which need full range for proper display. I now use this Vegas extension to help here
https://vegasvideo.de/extension-previewlevels-en.html -
You probably have a levels problem. Images from still cameras are full range, 0-255, and your video output levels should typically be 16-235 (studio range).
Vegas does not normalize input into the studio video range so it is up to you to do this. Use Sony levels with the computer to studio RGB preset.
It should also be noted that many cameras that output AVC video also output full range and also need this adjustment. Canon, Nikon, Panasonic digital cameras and GoPro’s come to mind.
Normally this levels problem only shows on encodes and not the preview window, since the Vegas preview window wants full range. If you are using a secondary preview monitor you can get a levels issue depending on your preferences settings.
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What does MediaInfo (or similar) say is in the MOV files?
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[John Rofrano] “Wow, I didn’t realize that. I take it back. It’s sad that GPU support is so messed up.”
I blame Mainconcept for this. They hard coded their encoder to specific AMD architectures.
This is bad for a couple of reasons.
1) It excludes Nvidia and Intel and anything else that might exist. Mainconcept went out of their way to take hardware independent OpenCL and make it hardware dependent. Who knows the reasoning behind this decision.
2) It is fine to have custom tuned versions of your algorithm(s) for specific architectures to squeeze the most performance out of your code but you must have something “generic” that runs everywhere.
I’ll bet their OpenCL code will run on all AMD Nvidia and Intel if they just removed the checks/tests for specific supported hardware architecture. Maybe not run “ideally”, but run nonetheless.
If Vegas has custom tuned versions of their effects code, they certainly still have “generic” ones which always work with any OpenCL driver. This is the way it should be done.
Mainconcept OpenCL code might be precompiled and could be a source of their issues. Vegas for example, compiles their OpenCL on the fly and saves it in the “AppData” folder. Install a new driver or video card and Vegas recompiles the OpenCL code. Again, this is the way it should be done. New driver versions can have bug fixes and performance improvements and an application should take advantage of this.