2.39:1 AR HDV Rendering - Best suited codec?

linvanoak wrote on 5/30/2009, 10:24 AM
Which file types and Codecs would you suggest to make high quality master video files in 2.39:1 aspect ratio (like 1280x536 or 1920x804)?


Normaly when working with Sony Vegas Pro I use the HDV 720-25p preset for the project.

I film with a HV20 and capture HDV .m2t files. After I have finished editing my project I normaly render a master video file with the Mainconcept MPEG-2 HDV 720-25p Preset. Afterwards I use that 1280x720 .m2t master file to render other copies of the video with lower video resolution like 640x360 or other codecs like .wmv or .avi (divx).

Since I am not very familiar with the Mainconcept MPEG-2 codec I usually do not change any settings.

Nevertheless I lately cropped video shot in 16:9 to a 2.39:1 aspect ratio like some parts of the industry seems to use since the 1970.

Therefore I changed the existing HDV 720-25p preset to a Width of 1280 and a Height of 536.

After I had finished editing my project I wanted to render it by modifying the Mainconcept MPEG-2 HDV 720-25p Preset. I also changed Width to 1280 and Height to 536.

Unfortunately the rendering process stopped after 1 second with the following error message:

"An error occured while creating the media file filename.m2t. The reason for the error could not be determined.

My questions:

1) Could it be that the Mainconcept MPEG-2 codec does not accept some Width and Height Combinations?

2) Do I have to adjust other codecs settings as well other than Width and Height?

3) Which file types and Codecs would you suggest to make high quality master video files in 2.39:1 aspect ratio like 1280x536 or 1920x804?

Comments

peter-sieben wrote on 5/31/2009, 6:48 AM
I don't think you can use M2T files with non standard resulotions. If you have to render to M2T, render to 1280x720 or 1440x1080 and accept a little letteboxing within the 16:9 frame. If you still want to render to a non-standard size, use the WMV or MP4 formats.
linvanoak wrote on 6/1/2009, 7:42 AM
Thank you for that information. I guess I will stick with the standard m2t resolutions for prerendering some subprojects and the masterfiles and accept the letterboxing.

Unfortunately some special effects like sony light rays or tv simulator tend to also affect the letter boxed part of the image.
If anyone has an idea how to prevent that I would be glad for a solution.

On the plus side those unwanted effect areas will be cropped out when converting the standard resolution m2t master files to the 2.39:1 AR to wmv or mp4 formats as you suggested.

To explain further for those who have a similar problem:

The benefit of working with allready rendered .m2t files is that those parts of the project do not have to be rendered again if the original render settings of the .m2t files are the same as the one of the new project. Of course that only holds true if you do not apply any new effects to the prerendered parts of your new project.

A practical way to use this is when several people work on parts of a project. Each person renders its segment of the project and there is almost no additional rendering time when joining all parts together.

As far as I know wmv need to be rendered again when joined together in a new project. Please correct me if I am missinformed on that matter. I will try out if it is possible with mp4 files.

Basically what I was looking for was an alternative to .m2t which lets me work in the same way but also lets me use custom aspect ratios.

Until I find an other solution I will have to deal with the letterboxing of standard resolutions and change the aspect ratio when rendering the final file to wmv or mp4.
musicvid10 wrote on 6/1/2009, 8:11 AM
.m2t can be rendered using 2.21:1 format in Vegas.