[Wayne Waag]

I can essentially do that over and over again without any quality loss?

No you can’t. There will be significant generational loss doing it your way. For best quality, you should have but one final render.

Your real problem is this, however.

edit on my slower laptop (Intel 2 Core Duo 8 gig ram

If at all possible, you need to consider upgrading to a much more powerful computer system. I have a 9 year old Core 2 duo laptop and was unfortunately forced to use it for a few weeks. Unfortunately, watching the grass grow is almost as fast. If you simply “can’t” upgrade, then you should consider the use of proxies. You could create low resolution proxies, do your editing, and once completed, swap back the original files for your final render.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

I don’t have render templates for either of those Lossless codecs.

You will have to create a custom template for each one. Very easy. Open the Render As window. In the center drop down menu, select Video for Windows (*.avi). You can select any template (although it’s a bit quicker if there is already one for your project frame size, rate, etc. which can be identified if there is an equals sign “=” in front of the template)–then click on Customize Template. Select Frame Size, Frame Rate, Field Order, PAR, and under Video Format, there is another drop down menu. Select your codec and configure if necessary. Then Enter a new Template Name in top box. Click on the save icon and you’re done. You will have to do this for each codec and each frame rate/size variation that you might want to use.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

One thing to try. Place a sample file on the Vegas timeline and render out using each codec. Then open that file in Virtualdub and render out again using the same codec. Bring those back into Vegas on another track for comparison. Toggle back and forth using videoscopes to insure there are no color shifts. I abandoned use of Lagarith for this very reason some time ago–plus it decodes very slowly on the timeline. I haven’t tried Grass Valley Lossless.

You might give some consideration to MagicYUV (my current choice since I do a lot of avisynth-vdub processing). No color shifts and it decodes very quickly for good preview performance on the timeline.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Rob Clapham

Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to edit my above post.

It’s been changed. To edit, simply hit the reply button to your post and to the left you will see the edit button.

I think removing the GoPro’s fisheye is done with VirtualDub isn’t it? I use an Avisynth script that you simply open in Virtualdub. I’ve put together a Vegas script for automatically going directly from events on the Vegas timeline to the avisynth script in Virtudaldub. The “defished” file is then added as a Take to the original event. Just select the events, and walk away till the processing is done.

I agree that NeatVideo can make things look very plasticy

A far better denoiser IMHO are some avisynth scripts written by John Meyer. Whereas Neatvideo is mostly a spatial filter, his scripts are temporal in nature. They are a lot more difficult to run, but the results are better and they don’t cost anything. I find that with NeatImage for stills, you often get that plastic look as well. It’s very easy to overdo the amount of noise reduction.

So, it isn’t for just for me to watch – if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense. If it’s for internet distribution, you really don’t have much choice. As far as the potential out of sync warning, I get that most of the time as well, even when there is no dialog. Also the message that your video is shaky. Lets face it. Lots (most?) of people will watch YT stuff on their phone or a tablet or pc that’s got a slow internet connection. Even with my 100 MBps download, lots of videos are pretty shaky and not very smooth. It’s all to easy too forget that content is still king.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Welcome to the world of Vegas Pro editing. The problem is definitely NOT your choice of camera (you don’t need 4K to shoot high quality video), but rather your choice of camera settings (frame size, frame rate, etc.) when shooting in conjunction with your choice of project and render settings inside of Vegas during editing. To help figure out your problem, we need to know three things:

(1) information about your footage. The best way is to produce a screen shot from one of your video files using the freeware MediaInfo. Or you can simply look at the media properties window within Vegas. This provides detailed information about format, frame size, and frame rate. Here’s an example

(2) your project settings. Again, another screen shot is most useful. If you key-in Alt-enter a window pops up with detailed project settings. Select the video tab. Again, an example.

(3) your render settings. Again, another screen shot is most useful. This gives information about your render template. Another example.

To maintain the highest quality, the three settings should be pretty much the same. E.g. if you shoot 1080 60P video, then your project settings should be 1080 60P and your render template should also be 1080 60P. It sounds as if you probably have a mis-match. E.g. if you shoot at 1080 60P and have project or render settings set to 1080 24P. In any case, you will need to provide us this detailed information.

Regarding stabilization. Anytime you stabilize footage, there will be some loss of quality, especially if using the stabilizer within Vegas. You will notice that your footage will be noticeably “zoomed in”–hence the loss of some quality. Third-party stabilizers are available that will minimize the amount of zoom.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Rob Clapham

I also wondered when reading the article if it’s possible to do it ‘manually.’ What I mean is, is it possible to download debug mode’s Frame Server only, and then click a few buttons to get it to work with Handbrake?

No. Handbrake will not directly read the “fake” avi that the debugmode frameserver produces. It is necessary to install the other software (Avisynth and Pismo). It may appear complex, but it only takes a few minutes to install and set up. If you install just the frameserver, you can render with TMPGEnc’s Mastering Works.

In my view, installing and learning to use Debugmode Frameserver, Avisynth, and Virtualdub pays huge dividends in the long term since it opens up a vast array of filters and processes that are often better than the paid plug-ins and are free, a good example being Neat Video that can easily introduce the “plastic” look. Another example, fish-eye removal when using action cam footage from a GoPro.

Regarding your AV sync issue, this really sounds like a YT/Firestick problem. A question for you. If your goal is to watch “your” video productions on “your” TV, why would would you go to the bother of uploading to Youtube and suffer the inevitable loss of quality? It is very easy to stream directly from your pc or use an external storage device in conjunction with a dedicated media player or just a blu-ray player. My preference is actually a Sony blu-ray player (I use a 2013 model.) since it plays 1080 60P video files without issue and also supports the MKV container, which allows chapter selection. Just a few things to consider.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Here’s a very easy way. Ctrl-drag the end of your event to the left as far as it will go. This will be a 400% speed increase. If you drill down and look at the timeline, you will see the cursor now stops on every 4th frame of the event when you advance (right-arrow). Since you want more than 400%, disable resample and then render to a new track using a lossless codec such as MagicYUV, Lagarith, etc. Now do the same thing (ctrl-drag) to the rendered event. You can easily speed things up by another 400% or whatever you choose. Just make sure to disable resample.

Another way if you have something like Vegasaur. Create a marker on an interval of 7 frames. Then create a timeline snapshot at each marker and save as a series of png files. Then re-import the png files as an image sequence.

The easiest way though–just buy the plug-in.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

I would create a normal DVD with a menu for file selection where your thumbnails are displayed using something like TMPGEnc’s Mastering Works. You can import MP4 files and it will automatically do the transcoding to produce a “proper” DVD. Be aware that there will be a quality loss as result of the transcoding. AFAIK, you cannot use MP4 files directly for DVD creation.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

For graphics work, you really need to pay attention to Levels. When you export from Photoshop, your images will usually be full range (0-255), or in Vegas terms, Computer RGB. When you render from Vegas you must apply a Computer RGB to Studio RGB filter. The easiest way if all you have is graphic images is to apply it on the video bus using the Levels Fx (computer RGB to studio RGB preset). You will notice two things in your second rendered image. First your blacks are very dark and your whites are over blown. Once you apply the filter, try rendering using Sony AVC at say 10 Mbps and then upload to YT. Bear in mind, YT video will always be a lesser quality. Good luck.

wwaag

[Wayne Waag]

Wayne, did you read what Prodad says?

No, I didn’t. I never trust what I read in the papers. It does work, regardless of what the website claims–at least on my system. Easiest thing to do is simply “try it”.

wwaag