Back to Vegas 8.1 - no doubt anymore

ingvarai wrote on 1/7/2009, 3:52 AM
As a beginner in this field of video editing, using AVCHD footage, I have been overwhelmed by all the various render settings in Vegas and the zillion codec versions out there. I have not really found a good workflow, and have been rather confused about hwo to do things.

However, after making some simple tests today, I realize my mind must have been obscured by a dark cloud.

When rendering a test project in Vegas 8c, based on m2ts source, and rendering using the DVD Architect PAL Widescreen template, it took 2 minutes to render. Going the Cineform route (via an AVI file), it took even longer, not shorter as I had expected, it took 2:20.

However, when putting m2ts file on the time line in vegas 8.1, using the same template for rendering, the gauge accelerated as if driven by a rocket, and stopped at 20 seconds - the render was done.

Having a look at the CPU usage, I discovered that under Vegas 8c, it utilizes 40-60 %, whereas under 8.1 it stays 100% all the time. I have an Intel Quad and am running Vista 64 bit. I think this explains it all.

So what I will do now, is to use 8.1, and occasionally use 8.c when I need some of the expensive New Blue FX I have purchased. I will probably also purchase Cineform Scene, now that it is working ok, for special purposes. Apart from that - no proxies here for me.
And as an intermediate format, I will probably render to m2t using the highest possible quality settings.
Any comments?

Comments

InterceptPoint wrote on 1/7/2009, 5:27 PM
I'm running my new Core i7 machine with 8.1 and Vista 64 bit and I render AVCHD faster than real time. The difficulties in editing AVCHD are really overblown by most on this forum. Yes you do need a very fast machine to edit without proxies but if you have that fast machine AVCHD is a piece of cake.

So I agree with everything you said.
srode wrote on 1/8/2009, 3:47 AM
Curious, How does that i7 do with DVDA speed? What are your rendering settings in vegas with AVCHD and what speed are you running the i7 at?
InterceptPoint wrote on 1/8/2009, 9:06 AM
For the case where I'm getting better than real time rendering I'm using the MainConcept MPEG-2 codec and a modified DVDA template. Because the modification is for a two-pass render the total time is more than real-time but with, hopefully, an improvement in quality. I've never really run an A-B test so I don't know if it really helps much. But for the 15-30 minute videos that I typically create the speed is so good going to standard DVD that it doesn't really matter much.

For a simple single pass render to the unmodified DVDA widescreen template the Core i7 (2.66 Ghz) will render a simple AVCHD clip in 70% of real time. DVD Architect does not re-render the video so that process is pretty fast.

The target here is standard DVD not any sort of HD or Blu-ray format. Rendering to these formats is certainly slower.
srode wrote on 1/8/2009, 4:45 PM
so your AVCHD is 1920 x 1080 or are you rendering to a DVD format in realtime and what is the source format? Are you using 32 bit color or 8 bit?
InterceptPoint wrote on 1/8/2009, 8:56 PM
The AVCHD format is 1440x1080 from my Sony CX-7 and yes it will render to DVD format in realtime if you just have a straight clip with no transitions, color corrections,upteen audio tracks etc. In real life you won't get that speed but you can get close.

And this is with 8-bit color.