@3POINT in my quest for more information, I want things to appear at their original pixel size. My reason for the 4K illustration is that you won't lose resolution (up to a point) when zooming in or panning of a 4K video on a 1080HD timeline. If the 4K clip is now a "1080" clip, zooming in 4x, would it not become not clear as if you zoomed into an original pixel sized 4K video?

Everything imported into Vegas is treated at original size and not at project size. So zooming in on a 4k clip in a 1080p project is no issue as long you use pan/crop tool and not for example trackmotion or piptool. Besides piptool can also been used at original size when you place pipFx before Pan/crop tool in the FXchain.

My experience is your 4K clip is a 4K clip until you render out as 1080 as VP timeline works on the source media resolution. But Track motion works on project resolution which is where a less clear result will occur as you are zooming/panning into a 1080 image instead of 4K.

EDIT: 3Point beat me to it but here to confirm is the Pan/Crop image of a 4k still (I don't have any 4K video) in a 1080 25p project. Note the pixel size shown. When cropping I try to have this not go lower than 1920x1080 to maintain maximum 1080 quality on render

Everything imported into Vegas is treated at original size and not at project size.

@3POINT  ... just for clarification, does that still apply if "Adjust source media to better match project or render settings" in Project Preferences has been checked or should that option remain unchecked?

@Reyfox Just make an 1080p project and import a 4k event and open pan/crop, there you see always the original size:

 

@3POINT  ... just for clarification, does that still apply if "Adjust source media to better match project or render settings" in Project Preferences has been checked or should that option remain unchecked?

Not 3POINT but the answer is yes as explained in the "1080HD on 4K timeline" thread this is the answer

Everything imported into Vegas is treated at original size and not at project size.

@3POINT  ... just for clarification, does that still apply if "Adjust source media to better match project or render settings" in Project Preferences has been checked or should that option remain unchecked?

That's just for old 16:9 DV footage to import into a square pixel 16:9 project, not necessary nowadays, doesn't matter.

Thanks all for clearing this up for me. Again, I basically work in 4K, but after UpRes and Boris suggest a slightly different workflow, I wondered about bringing in a 4K clip into a 1080HD project.

I normally use all my 4k footage in just 1080 projects, because I see no difference at normal viewing distance (4m) in my living on my 65" UHDTV between the original 4k and the downscaled 1080 version. So it would also make no sense for me to upscale my 1080 footage to 4k.

In my mind, the concept of "cropping into a 4k clip" is no different from cropping into a clip that uses any frame size. Because I try not to crop into frames. Not mixing frame rates makes that possible so that I can always crop on frame boundaries. Also benefits to keep transitions 1 second or longer. And never put 4k footage into hd projects for the reason cited earlier... I think that downscales the 4k back to hd before fx and grading which yields little, if any benefit. So if there's any 4k footage, I make the project 4k so I can get a better 4k render to compare to hd renders.

The only problem is that hd footage might stand out as obviously inferior next to 4k. Of course, the better the optics on the hd, the less of a problem that is. I never had a issue with hd xf305 footage next to a 4k zcam with Canon lenses on both. With hd ptz's, I minimize the issue by positioning them closer on stage with better cameras farther away out in the audience, up in the rafters, or at the back of the house. I get the best results upscaling any hd footage... which requires the project to be 4k. I find pre-processing it ahead of time and bringing it in as 4k yields the most optimal results and the best performance. Upscaling on the fly while editing and generating preview renders is painful... best to get it over with overnight in advance.

The final results even give hd downscaled renders a better look. I have an older 48" hd Samsung in my editing room and a 65" 4k Samsung in the screening room and the differences are obvious on both. But sometimes my eyes get numb after hours of editing. So I wait till morning to screen it alone. But when I screen with the performers, I suddenly see much better. It's like they lend me their eyes.

@Howard-Vigorita when you say "pre-processing", what procedure do you mean?

Just load the hd clips into Vegas, set the project to 4k, add AI Upscale as event fx, and render with a 4k preset. The result will be an upscaled 4k clip. Then use that 4k clip in the project instead of the hd clip.

If you really want to throw away the extra 4k resolution, you could always do the opposite and turn 4k clips into smaller hd clips and load them into your hd project instead. Preprocessing the downscale might give you marginally better performance with the smaller hd clip in place of a larger 4k clip in the hd project.

To me this sounds completely unlogical, with the by coming disadvantage that you render those upscaled/downscaled clips twice.

A short example I want to share of UHD/4k footage (recently recorded as test with a DJI Osmo Pocket 3) rendered in VP22 from a UHD/4k timeline and the same UHD/4k footage rendered in VP22 from a FHD/1080 timeline, so the FHD version is a downscale of the 4k footage. Watch those samples on your UHDTV at a normal viewing distance.

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/7379fd31-7913-4db5-9ab6-b5bac89bedf9