[Wayne Waag]

You will probably have to re-mux to a format Vegas likes. You can use TSmuxer (freeware). Try re-muxing to m2ts and it should work. It’s very quick, since you are mostly copying your file into another container.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Glad it’s working for you. By adding a third track, it’s useful in that you can, for example, add audio from an external recorder and have them grouped.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

And is there a shortcut to getting a large number of clips to have their video & audio portions grouped together again?

Yes. Here is a script written by Gilles. Events to be grouped must be on the top 2 tracks. You can add additional tracks if you want.

/**
* Group Track1 and Track2 Events
* Ce script groupe les Events des deux premières pistes
* Auteur Gilles Pialat 09/01/2008
* https://www.cameravideo.net/forum/sony-vegas-dvd-architect/
**/

using System;
using Sony.Vegas;

class EntryPoint
{
public void FromVegas(Vegas vegas)
{
for (int i=0; i< vegas.Project.Tracks[0].Events.Count; i++)
{
TrackEventGroup group = new TrackEventGroup();;
vegas.Project.Groups.Add(group);
group.Add(vegas.Project.Tracks[0].Events[i]);
group.Add(vegas.Project.Tracks[1].Events[i]);

}

}

}

Simply copy and save with a .cs extension. Then put it in your script folder.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Any software suggestions

You could give TMPGEnc’s Mastering Works 6 a try. You can add simple titles and transitions. It also supports batch processing. It uses the x264 encoder so the quality will be better (IMHO) than Mainconcept in Vegas. It also supports QuickSync encoding which will be a lot faster if your Intel processor supports it. I believe they have a 15 day free trial.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Rick,

The bottom line, regardless of which you choose (I like Sony) is that the audio is NOT going to be terribly good. This is a common problem, even for those using DSLRs or prosumer camcorders. Just make sure that your camcorder has a microphone input and also a headphone output so you can “hear” what the camera is recording and learn to use manual gain. A better mic can help, but an even better solution is to simply use an external recorder such as a Zoom H1 or better attached to your camera. You’ll have to sync audio during editing, but the quality of your recordings will be significantly better. My preference is to run the headphone out from the recorder directly into the mic input to make syncing even easier.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

The power setting on your laptop shouldn’t have any effect once your render begins. Another option is to use the Sony AVC codec which is faster than Mainconcept. There is also an option of Quicksync support using Sony AVC which would definitely speed up render time, but I have no idea whether your laptop’s Intel processor supports it.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

this time with lower average bit rate (4,000,000

Average bit rate of your render will not affect rendering time to any significant degree. However, it WILL decrease the quality of your render. Rendering at 4 Mbps will definitely affect your quality. You really don’t want to do that.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Pretty straightforward. Just copy the script and paste it into the Vegas Script Menu folder–something like “C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 13.0\Script Menu”. That’s it. If Vegas is open when you do this, you will have to re-scan the script menu. Tools|Scripting|Rescan Script Menu Folder. If Vegas is closed when you add the script to the Script Menu Folder, just open Vegas and it will be there.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Ellen

In my view, it’s unlikely that you have a PC problem. It’s probably this.

he said to reduce the bit rate and work with less than 1080p. I rendered at 24fps.

You changed the frame rate to 24 which means you are doing a frame rate conversion from either 30 or 60 fps to 24 which will be very time consuming and also look pretty terrible, especially if you have not disabled resampling. You need to make sure that first, your media files and project settings are in sync. E.g. if your Gopro footage is 1080 30P, then your project settings should be the same. You can always render at 720p, but keep your project settings the same. If your media is 60P and you want to render at 30P, make sure that you have disabled smart re-sampling for all of your events. Then, Vegas will simply drop every other frame and not re-sample which takes a lot of time, plus looks pretty bad.

You have a pretty decent laptop (i7) and it should render very quickly, unless you’ve added lots of effects. In fact, it should be pretty close to real-time.

If you are still having problems, suggest you provide a screen shot of your GoPro footage information using MediaInfo.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Downloaded your files and I can confirm that there is indeed an 8db difference between the two audio files. There was no problem loading these 2 files into Vegas. At least you know it’s not your system. When I normalized each to the same volume, the noise from the 770 seemed to be much greater. Since you set it to Auto, either the camera is defective or it’s a design problem. I did see on B&H that someone else had complained of low audio volume. I guess my inclination would be to ask for a replacement and if it’s the same, then try something else. BTW I liked your black cat–reminded me of one we had many years ago.

wwaag