[Thomas Turner]

Yes, the Canon has a mic input. I haven’t done any type of recording yet because I’ve found something to record. My passion is high end audio, maybe I can find something in that arena to shoot either with pics or video.

I’ve done a time lapse before. They are cool. I used an android app to determine how many frames I would need if I wanted a certain length time lapse. It was cool, but I stopped after I found out that Dslr’s have a finite actuation life. I don’t know if this affects video cameras. I suspect not.

So it looks like your shooting photos with your NX70? Is that right?

[Thomas Turner]

I found out that the T3i actually has the ability to disable AGC, it’s called manual audio. Cool.

[Thomas Turner]

The Sony NX70 looks like a nice pro HDTV camera. I’m not to that level of shooting quite yet and don’t know that I’ll ever be. I do have a project with a buddy of mine shooting Garbage Trucks. Yes Garbage Trucks, but nothing is final.

The other day I’ve pickup a Canon T3i dSLR camera. It’s a nice unit which I think will do well to satisfy my photo and video needs. Sound is a big issue as you mentioned because while these dSLR’s shoot great video, audio control is lacking.

They do have an external mic input but is has AGC which can’t defeated in the settings. AGC, I’m told hinders audio by clipping loud passages and has other negative effect, so I’m told. I haven’t used the camera yet, so I can’t attest to this, but this is the main compliant I hear from users. I’ll have to see for myself.

I could have picked up Panasonic GH2 that is heralded for its photo and video quality, but I got deal on the T3i that I couldn’t pass up.

What are you shooting with the Sony these days.

[Thomas Turner]

Cool Youtube video, it reminded me of my high school days. I didn’t play in the band, but had many friends who did. I still have fond memories of the music they played at football, basketball games and especially during rallies.

I agree that avi is too large, h.264/mp4 is much more efficient. I’ll try the settings you posted and include a copy of VLC player on the flash drive as that seems to be the best solution. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I’d like to get another DSLR that does good video, but none really get me going. Maybe the Sony NEX-5n since it has full manual control while in video mode, however, no hotshoe. Not sure about external mic input though. Any suggestions?

[Thomas Turner]

[Stephen Crye] “Excellent, I predict you will enjoy DVDA!

I have great success using the built-in MainConcept setting for NTSC Widescreen. Produces DVDs that have pretty much as good resolution as commercially bought movies. However, because I shoot with a Sony HDR-CX550V ACVHD camera at either 1920×1080 or 1440×1080, my results will be better than yours due to the higher bit rates on my source video (17 Mbps or 24 Mpbs)

For a clip I shot yesterday at the HDFX 24 Mbps 1080 60i setting, Vegas reports this:

Streams
Video: 00:01:38.198, 29.970 fps interlaced, 1920x1080x12, AVC
Audio: 00:01:38.198, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, Dolby AC-3

Do you know the encoder, bit-rate and frame rate of your camera?

Regarding “jerky” – the CX550V has the best image stabilization of any consumer cam, even better than Sony’s newer models. Although the CX550V is out of production, you can purchase essentially the equivalent camera in Sony’s Pro line, the MC50U. It is essentially a gussied-up CX550V with a silly mic and a little hood. I saw one on Amazon the other day for $1200.00 . The Active Steady Shot on the cam is amazing – it is a poor man’s SteadyCam.”

Steve,
For 1280x 720 HD the bit rate is ~30-35 Mbps. I used both the the Sony AVC and MainConcept MPEG-2 compression modes with the Internet 1280x720p template and all seemed to workout fine. Windows Media Player 11 sucks for playing back these files, I can say that. It hiccups sometimes when playing back the file making it difficult to know if the render was good or not. I played back the files in VLC and all was good, except there was no audio which is because I didn’t render the audio separately into a folder with the video feed.

I now want to forgo the dvd and distribute the video to my brother in law on a USB or something like that. That would require the format I encode with to be “”portable” if I’ve got my nomenclature down. Problem is, last time I rendered the video in avi format (1280x720p at 29.97fps) it came out with hiccups and blotchy video. So I may need to play with the different encoding options. Advice??

You’re using a video cam? What is your main subject matter? Landscapes, sports, people, animals, etc, etc. I shoot casually but have been increasingly used the video in my E-PL1 to see if I like shooting video. If so I’ll delve deeper, make an investment and maybe take a stab at wedding, boudoir, business, etc videos as a side business.

I’m working out the issues now doing free stuff so I can learn the software, equipment, do’s, don’ts and short-falls before I get any paid clients. One of the first free projects I hope to do is for my current employer. I want to make a video for them to put up on the website.

If I sold my Olympus E-PL1 now, I would possibly be able to add a couple hundred dollars to the pot and upgrade to a better camera (dSLR) with better video chops. What would you recommend?

[Thomas Turner]

After reading the comments I went digging. I found that I do indeed have DVDA installed as well as the MainConcept MPEG-2 plugin. I tried using the MainConcept MPEG-2 plug-in the other day with a video but wasn’t happy with the results. In the end however I can’t fault the compression method because the source was not very clean (read: jerky) so I wasn’t able to get a good read on the finished product.

I went to the park and shot my son and wife locating the camera on the solid concrete. That should give me a good stable source from which to judge if the compression method I’m using it jerky or not. I’ll go through a few renderings to see which one renders the best. Currently I’m testing Sony AVC with the Internet 1280×720-30p. I’ll report back what I find out.

[Thomas Turner]

[Stephen Crye] “I can help with the Youtube and Facebook questions direct from Vegas, but I am confused about something.

Sony Vegas Pro comes with DVDA . Which version of Vegas to you have? Even when I bought Vegas MovieMaker Platinum, it came with a non-pro Version of DVDA. Your Download or original media should have included it.

For YouTube or Facebook, if your source is 720×480, I’d render to a .mov or .MP4 format. To avoid “blotch”, pick a higher bit-rate than the defaults, by setting Custom. I never use 720×480, but I just created a quick custom template to show you.”

Being new to Vegas I don’t honestly know if I have DVDA. I have to confirm my version of Sony Vegas when I get home in a couple of hours. Thanks for bringing up a good point and I’ll let you know tonight what version I have.

I see that your using CBR, any reason for not using VBR? I’ve read that VBR is just as good because of the compression technology but it has the added benefit of being a smaller file as well. Any truth to this in your experience?

[Thomas Turner]

[Stephen Crye] “Hi Thomas;

I, like you when I first started using Vegas, wanted to do everything “inside” it, but I quickly discovered that following John’s recommendations is so much better. The extra step of using DVD Architect (DVDA) will become second nature. And, it will allow you to create cool menus, put multiple vids on a single DVD, etc. Spend an hour or two learning, well worth it!

All you have to do is pick the Main Concept and Dolby in the “Save as Type” drop down. After you create those two files in the same folder, when you run DVDA and pick the .mpg, it will know to associate the correct .ac3 file. Here are screen shots:

Good luck and have fun!

Steve”
Thank you Steve. I would love to buy Sony DVD Architect, but at this point I’d like to find a cheaper way to output the video. DVD would be nice, but right now, in the beginning stages of my video budding I’d like to just get a project rendered and produced to present a “final” copy to someone. I’d be just as happy if they can post it on there facebook page from Youtube or from Vimeo. Do you have instructions on how to do this?

[Thomas Turner]

[John Rofrano] “MainConcept MPEG-2 using the DVD Architect NTSC video stream”

[John Rofrano] “Then you want to render to MainConcept MPEG-2 using the DVD Architect NTSC video stream for video and then render the audio as Digital Dolby AC-3. Give both files the same name (just with different extensions) and use that in DVD Architect to make your DVD. This should give you the best quality.”

After a bit of research I see that MainConcept MPEG-2 is a free plug-in and DVD Architect is Sony’s separate DVD authoring software. For some reason I thought there was a DVD authoring component to Sony Vegas Pro 10. I guess not, that changes things a bit.

I want to keep my costs down because this video is being done for free and also as an experiment to see if I like doing video. What is the best way to output great looking 720p video onto a medium like a USB stick, or output the video to youtube or vimeo or something like that for my brother in law to view in a soft copy as opposed to the DVD?

[Thomas Turner]

MainConcept MPEG-2 is a plug-in correct? Is there a way to do what I’d like to do “inside” Sony Vegas 10.