1080i to DVD problem & Vegas GUI color
by Sebastian
on
Nov 21, 2007 at 10:27:05 pm
I'm testing both Canopus Edius Pro 4.5 and Vegas Pro 8.0a. One of the things I'm testing to decide which one to buy is how good is the DVD output. So I encode to 480i with upper field, since my AVCHD camcorder (Panasonic SD5) is 1080i upper field. Edius outputs the best quality, and it doesn't show any defects. Vegas, however, outputs a file that seems de-interlaced, because the movement is not as smooth as it is in the source video or the DVD video that Edius outputs. I checked many times that I'm using the right settings everywhere, both in the project and the encoder. Is there something I'm missing?
Also, is there a way to make the Vegas interface darker, such as Premiere and Edius allow? I like Vegas, but it's a little bright for my taste.
Re: 1080i to DVD problem & Vegas GUI color by DSE/Spot on Nov 21, 2007 at 11:21:37 pm
Vegas allows themes to be applied to the app, so if you'd like to use a Windows theme for Vegas, it'll make it as dark (or light) as you'd like.
My books on Vegas have themes in them, and there are themes on the VASST Site at the Vegas Portal.
Vegas won't deinterlace unless you tell it to. I'm not sure what difference you're seeing from Canopus unless project settings are different.
Edius does deal with MPEG 2 better, but my experience is that it doesn't deal with HDV as well as Vegas.
Perhaps listing the settings or template you're using may help, particularly given that you were earlier outputting a 1920 x 1080 file.
Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Re: 1080i to DVD problem & Vegas GUI color by Sebastian on Nov 22, 2007 at 3:39:51 am
[DSE/Spot]"there are themes on the VASST Site at the Vegas Portal."
Thanks for pointing me to that site, it looks like there's a lot of interesting plugins for Vegas. The themes are listed there but their links don't work, however I realized that changing the 3d color in Vista's legacy color options changes Vegas' background.
[DSE/Spot]"Edius does deal with MPEG 2 better, but my experience is that it doesn't deal with HDV as well as Vegas.
The problem with Edius is that prior to editing AVCHD files (I don't know about HDV) you have to use their utility to convert them to the Canopus HQ codec which takes quite some time. Loading the original files can be done, but they play very slow. Once that's done, however, editing is fast. Vegas on the other side, takes the AVCHD files without conversion and they play, but they stutter. However, it's fast to render to RAM a short preview of what you need at the moment, which I really like. What I don't like is that it limits RAM previews to 1GB. Since I have 4 GB, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to choose at least 2 GB previews.
[DSE/Spot]"Perhaps listing the settings or template you're using may help, particularly given that you were earlier outputting a 1920 x 1080 file."
I figured it out after doing more testing. The problem was in the project settings, I had deinterlace set to none. That is kind of misleading, because since I want my project to be interlaced, I shouldn't have to choose any deinterlacing method, but once I chose the interpolate fields setting, the output from the DVD encoding was perfect. I just wish that the Mpeg 2 encoder and the AC3 were in the same module, so I don't have to encode first the video and then the audio.
Re: 1080i to DVD problem & Vegas GUI color by DSE/Spot on Nov 22, 2007 at 4:58:37 am
if you use the Freeware DVDPrep tool on the VASST site, it's a one-button push.
Any professional MPEG encoding system renders the two files separately. Aside from the fact that they are two separate licenses, it's simply a smart way to work and assure compatibility. It's also a better way to determine which is more important; audio or video.
Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Re: 1080i to DVD problem & Vegas GUI color by Sebastian on Nov 22, 2007 at 6:44:26 am
[DSE/Spot]"Any professional MPEG encoding system renders the two files separately."
Oh, I know that, I wasn't talking about multiplexed a/v streams. I meant that the same module doesn't output both the m2v and the ac3 files in the same step, like some other NLEs do. Not that it's a terrible drawback, but it would be nice nevertheless.
