Yes Yes Yes John is absolutely right, I use Render+ and it it much more flexible than Vegas templates as you can change the audio codec from AAC. Highly recommended. It is not yet updated for V23 but Wayne is working on it at the moment. If you try to use Render+ with V23 it will give a message that it only use Vegas inbuilt templates. Here is a screen shot of the template with my settings for AV1.

@andyrpsmith @john_dennis But this function is paid, right?

Yes it is not free, neither is Voukoder Pro. Happy Otter scripts has many additional functions and features than Voukoder Pro and a once only purchase.

Voukoder Pro will support VP23, it will be added in beta VK pro V3 as far as I know.

@andyrpsmith Yes, I know. I used to use the classic version. It's a shame.

@bitman Unfortunately, it is paid.

@m3lquixd

It's not a shame that we have to pay for software that we use!

Jøran Toresen

I think many people would be happy to move to a reasonably paid option to support what was the free version of Voukoder. The issue with the Pro version is it's complexity and from what I can see is the fee is currently $ 80 and coming soon a subscription based fee.

@andyrpsmith It's not worth it for me, because the cost is almost 1/3 of my country's minimum wage. And I only use it in specific situations, where I need to render multiple projects with different resolutions, using a script.

I keep wishing for Vegas to come with built-in avisynth & frameserver so we can use anything that supports avs for rendering. I understand Debug Mode Frameserver for vp23 is being worked on which will allow handing off renders to ffmpeg scripts via avs. More work installing avisynth, ffmpeg, and learning the scripting. Same free functionality as Voukoder and more. But alas, lacking the gui-convenience of classic Voukoder.

@m3lquixd

If you want free or nearly free and similar flexibility of Voukoder then another approach is to render out your project in Prores HQ first.

Then use a free or nearly free ffmpeg based gui util to render out the Prores intermediate file to whatever delivery format you choose.

You might even find something here ...

https://www.videohelp.com/software

Then there's Handbrake etc.

I use frequently Shutterencoder to rerender a nearly lossless intermediate render for a final delivery x265 render. Easy to use and very fast.

@johnny-s I think I expressed myself poorly. I'm not just talking about resolution, sorry, I'm mainly talking about aspect ratio! In fact, aspect ratio is what makes Voukoder crucial to my workflow. When I can, I'll upload a video explaining this better. But, in short, with it and the help of a script, I can create a render queue with projects of different aspect ratios.

@m3lquixd I think you mean the AR (aspect ratio) of your video and not the PAR (pixel aspect ratio). The AR of your video can be changed by using different resolutions instead of using a fixed resolution with a black border mask.

Voukoder has the advantage that it adepts the different used project resolutions.

@3POINT That's what I'm saying hahaha with Voukoder I can render several projects with different aspect ratios, without having to choose between different render templates. Example: a 16x9 video, or a 4x5 video, another 1x1... etc.

Exactly, in Voukoder you can always use the same rendertemplate for whatever project, because Voukoder always adepts resolution and framerate from the Vegas project settings.

After having invested in several recent VEGAS updates, lately to support its troubled finances, I am keen on not upgrading to new versions unless there is a solution for the importing of files and rendering, that these little softwares as Voukoder, Happy Otter Scripts and Shoutterencoder come to aid.

To my usage there is not more needed remaining features than these basic importing and rendering capabilities.

Am I misguided, or plainly wrong in thinking and expecting these basic features to be part of VEGAS?

I think VEGAS is great for most importing and rendering, it's for very particular formats that tools are needed to convert files for use in VEGAS or for particular render formats. No NLE does everything (last I checked couldn't render to ProRes in Resolve in Windows, etc.)