AVC or HEVC Video + PCM Audio in a MOV Wrapper

john_dennis wrote on 12/1/2025, 11:36 PM

In this discussion, Where did the Quicktime rendering option go? a discussion ensued about the possibility of using PCM audio with AVC or HEVC video rendered from Vegas Pro.

Howard-Vigorita described an FFMPEG script that he uses to combine the files rendered from Vegas Pro into a form he uploads to youtube.

Here is a method using Shutter Encoder for the script-averse among us.

The English Language Version

Render video and audio to two separate elementary streams using customized templates in Vegas Pro.

Rewrap the resulting video file from MP4 to MOV in Shutter Encoder.

Replace the (non-existent) audio in the MOV file with the WAV file just rendered.

Viola!

It sounds waaaaaaaay more complicated than it really is.

The Video Version

The Resultant File

General
Complete name                            : PQ Source - Medium Complexity-23_1.mov
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   0000.02 (qt  )
File size                                : 164 MiB
Duration                                 : 29 s 997 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 45.9 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf62.6.100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L5
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Format settings, Slice count             : 4 slices per frame
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 29 s 997 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 43.6 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 100.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.701
Stream size                              : 156 MiB (95%)
Writing library                          : AVC Coding
Language                                 : English
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : in24
Duration                                 : 29 s 997 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 304 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Stream size                              : 8.24 MiB (5%)
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1

 

Comments

EricLNZ wrote on 12/2/2025, 2:23 AM

Thanks @john_dennis It works.

andyrpsmith wrote on 12/2/2025, 3:44 AM

You can always rely on John to offer help and come up with unique solutions. Great work John.

EricLNZ wrote on 12/2/2025, 3:53 AM

OT - I've discovered my 11 year old TV doesn't recognise 'mov' videos so avc with pcm audio in a 'mov' isn't much use to me.

My use of a 'mov' file would be when I need an alpha channel and, to my knowledge, you cannot do that with avc video? Such a file would be for intermediary purposes and not final delivery.

3POINT wrote on 12/2/2025, 4:32 AM

@EricLNZ for short sequences with alpha channel, I prefer a .png sequence render instead.

EricLNZ wrote on 12/2/2025, 4:50 AM

@3POINT Thanks. That's a useful idea. I'll try it next time.

john_dennis wrote on 12/2/2025, 11:43 AM

@andyrpsmith said: "You can always rely on John to offer help and come up with unique solutions. Great work John."

Thank you for your comment. I put 2.3 children through college devising creative ways to do the most mundane tasks. As you can see, my record isn't 100%.

The draw for this and other related requests for PCM audio is probably driven by those who desire better audio. Crash cymbals and data centers have taken a toll on my hearing. I thought I was immortal at sixteen.

GJeffrey wrote on 12/2/2025, 4:59 PM

You can use the simple script i created to automate this task directly from Vegas.
You need ffmpeg on your computer and select its path.
Select the video and audio codec you want, select your favorite preset then click Start and go for walk until the rendering and rewrapping to mov is done.

LINK

john_dennis wrote on 12/2/2025, 10:25 PM

@GJeffrey An elegant script. Here is an icon to make it more recognizable.

Wrap2MOV.png

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 12/5/2025, 10:42 AM

You can use the simple script i created to automate this task directly from Vegas.
You need ffmpeg on your computer and select its path.
Select the video and audio codec you want, select your favorite preset then click Start and go for walk until the rendering and rewrapping to mov is done.

LINK

@GJeffrey Quite nice! I particularly like the way it initiates an ffmpeg command line which feeds ffmpeg input from a native Vegas render. Rather than via a stream through the quality-restricting pipe used by Voukoder and Frameserver plugins. I'm already playing with using your approach to feed a MagicYUV intermediate to an ffmpeg render command line... the double-render is lower in performance than a direct plugin but the quality is on par with MagicYUV.