audio/video rendering

mtb123 wrote on 5/12/2008, 8:02 PM
Hi

I know I've read somewhere about saving audio files under the same name as video and rendering using the video only DVDA template, but I can't find the post.

Can anyone enlighten me as to the process for rendering projects and why this A/V spilt is necessary?

Also, I'm trying to get a project ready for youtube and it says the best format is MPEG4 for the video and MPEG3 for audio- Vegas seems not to offer these settings for rendering- am I just not looking in the right place? And if it in fact does not, any suggestions for a decent converter from MPEG2 to 4?

Cheers

Mike

Comments

MPM wrote on 5/13/2008, 11:58 AM
RE: YouTube...
I'd suggest doing a bit of Googling & research... There are loads and loads of sites & videos with tips for optimizing or even beating the system YouTube has to encode most all uploads. Far too much info to even scratch the surface here in a short post IMHO. If you just want something quick & dirty, install Xvid & use that.

The best conversion from mpg2 to one of the mpg4 varieties is both a matter of opinions and the nature/quality of your mpg2 source. The popular method I use is to index the mpg2 using DGIndex, then using VFAPI for Vegas, or AVISynth for VirtualDub, edit, filter, and encode like any avi file. There are also several GUIs or front end programs that make use of DGIndex & AVISynth so no learning curve to worry about. Of course Vegas itself will handle mg2 on the time line if you prefer.

RE: DVDs...
SD DVDs use separate audio, video, and sub streams that are combined into sets of VOB files; separate tracks allow old equipment (DVD specs were designed over a decade ago) to switch between multiple audio & sub tracks. Letting you import combined audio & video in one file is just a convenience, since any DVD authoring program will just have to split them apart anyway.

To render DVDA compliant mpg2 in Vegas, just use the DVDA templates. To render your mpg2 elsewhere, if the version of DVDA is recent, just make sure it follows SD DVD specs. Personally I've found that DVDA prefers mpg files in the same format as multiplexed mpg2, but video only - one way to get that is to mux (multiplex) m2v video without supplying an audio file in TMPGEnc's MPEG Tools. If your video & audio are named the same, DVDA will automatically import the audio when you add the video, but it's just a convenience and not at all necessary.

The Vegas & DVDA manuals will help so check them out.
bStro wrote on 5/13/2008, 3:01 PM
Vegas seems not to offer these settings for rendering- am I just not looking in the right place?

*shrug* Where are you looking? ;-)

MPEG4 isn't a "format" so much as it is a codec -- in fact, it's really just a generic term to describe a variety of codecs. Divx, Xvid, H.264, and AVC are all codecs that are considered "MPEG4." A codec is a method or algorithm for compressing the content.

The file format, however, simply describes the file overall and determines where and how the video can be played. AVI and Quicktime are popular formats that can contain video using any number of codecs.

So, when you go to render a file out of Vegas, you first select the format you want to use from the "Save as type" dropdown. Depending on which you choose, Vegas will load the available templates for that format in the Template dropdown. Sony includes templates for some of the most common needs, but these templates are by no means the only settings Vegas can use. If none of the available templates meet your needs, you just click the Custom button and develop your own.

For example, to create a Divx file suitable for Youtube, choose Video for Windows (AVI) for the type of file. (There is the file format usually used for files compressed with Divx.) Then click the Custom button and go to the Video tab. There, click the Video format dropdown and select Divx.

After you've done this, Vegas enables the Frame size dropdown, so choose the frame size you want. 320x240 is popular for online video, but Youtube has started showing video at larger size, so you may want to give the 640x480 a try.

You can probably drop the frame rate down to 15 -- you don't really need 29.97 for web video, and lowering this will save you some space.

When you're satisfied with the video settings, go to the Audio tab. If you want to use MP3 audio as Youtube suggets, then click the Audio format dropdown and choose MPEG Layer 3. You can drop the Sample rate down to 22,050 or maybe even lower.

When you're done with the settings, go to the Template textbox at the top of this dialog, type a name for this template (for example, "Youtube videos"), and click the floppy disc icon to save this template. You will then be able to choose it from the Template list whenever you want to use these settings. Now click OK in this dialog and Save in the Render dialog to render your file.

Rob
mtb123 wrote on 5/13/2008, 3:46 PM
thank you for your help!