what's the best settings for a quicktime render

[Karl Dixon] "I need to have a final quicktime file , the movie is aimed at film festivals and we may even transfer it on 35mm. Please can you tell me which settings i should choose, or if i should upgrade to another version of vegas , just don't tell me i should render it as MP4, i really need a higher standard."

I assume by your last comment that you don't want AVC/H.264 because that's a valid QuickTime format as well.

If you want high quality QuickTime then you should download the Avid DNxHD codec and use that. It will give you very high quality with reasonable file sizes and works with both PC and Mac. Of course, when you submit to a film festival submission they may dictate what codecs you can use. That's another reason to use DNxHD because it will hold it's quality if you need to render to other formats.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

Karl, John isn't recommending that you use Avid, he's saying to use the free Avid codec that you install into Vegas and then use that format to render your final video.

[Karl Dixon] "I have another question : can the AVC 264 give a good qulity if transfeered into 35mm?"

So let's understand something. Your camera the Canon 5D Mark II shoots AVC/h.264!!! So is your source good enough to transfer to 33mm film? You tell me... you're looking at it. (which is why I was puzzled when you said, "... just don't tell me i should render it as MP4, i really need a higher standard." becasue you already have MP4/AVC h.264 footage in a MOV wrapper but I didn't want to embarrass you by pointing that out).

[Karl Dixon] "also, as you know Vegas 7 doesn't offer H.264 so what should I do?"

Update Vegas to a more modern version you're only 4 versions behind. Seriously, I don't know how you tolerate editing Canon 5D footage in Vegas 7. The newer versions play that back very smoothly but I didn't think 7 handled it well at all.

Well... you could purchase QuickTime Pro for $25. That will allows you to create AVC/H.264 MOV files. Why do you need a MOV file?

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

Double-click the exe file and follow the instructions.
Load your project, choose MOV in the "Save as" box, click "Custom" and, in the video tab, pick "Avid DNxHD Codec" in the drop down box.
Click "Configure" for more options.
I don't use this codec but I'm sure that a forum search will turn up suggestions for the appropriate render settings to use.

Go to the bottom of the page in the link that John gave and click on "QuickTime HD codec".
This opens a new page with links to a zip file for the codec for Mac and Windows.
If you don't want to do that, here's the direct link.
http://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/supportfiles/attach/AvidCodecsLE_2_3_7/Win/AvidC...

My limited understanding is that 709 is the color space for HD footage so I'd use that one.
To be on the safe side though, do a render in both and see which one looks better on a properly calibrated monitor.

Wonderful, thank you very much John!

[Tyson Onaga] "Any ideas what I'm doing wrong (I need the Alpha)?"

I have never been able to get the Alpha channel working with Avid DNxHD either. I'm not sure what's wrong. If you need an Alpha channel then use the QuickTime Animation codec.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Tyson Onaga] "Thus, I think the resulting .mov has the Alpha "inverted" and when you use this .mov in Vegas, it doesn't recognize it. Unfortunately, it looks like the only place where you can use the DNxHD w/ Alpha .mov _____ is in an Avid NLE."

This makes perfect sense now that you mention it. I've seen this in composting tutorials where the instructor says, "When using a mask, white lets video through while black blocks it, except if you're using an Avid system where black lets video through and white blocks it!" So Avid has everything backward from the rest of the industry including their masking and alpha channel handling.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com