Your question is somewhat open-ended without know the specs of your system. If it were me I, considering I wanted smooth playback, and not knowing anything else about the project, I would request something like Magic YUV.

These are some intermediates compared to each other for generations 1 and 3, using the Happy Otter Render quality metrics + ffmpeg ssim, psnr, results are similar. MagicYuv lossless thrown in.

To put those excellent test numbers in perspective, my unofficial grading rubric puts the line between "optimal" and "visually lossless" right about SSIM 0.995. It's a very good number to shoot for. But I would go even tighter with animation source.

For intermediates, I avoid PSNR below 40dB completely. That's the shadow noise figure, much like audio SNR.

Magicyuv hand down . It is fast and reasonable file size.

Thanks guys for the feedback.

My full system information is listed in my signature. Just click on the + SIGNATURE and it will reveal the details.

I am not familiar with MagicYUV and truly never heard about this format! Also, I could not find it in the listed format when I import media in Vegas Pro! See screenshots below:

Is my Vegas Pro missing this format?

You need to download and install it. Do an internet search for 'Magic YUV codec' and it will pop right up. Never mind, here you go: https://www.magicyuv.com/

@aboammar

MagicYUV would also be my choice. Although there's a freeware version available, I would recommend getting the Ultimate version ($14) which supports higher bit depths. Since it's a 3rd party codec and not free, it's not included in Vegas. Here's the link. https://www.magicyuv.com/

Hi @aboammar, I just purchased it recently, $14.00, there’s a free version also. https://www.magicyuv.com/

It'll land in vfw, Video For Windows, just select “video format” drop down in the vfw render template after you install the codec. I found that when attempting render to 10 bit I got an error, VP doesn’t support I think. @Musicvid, Nick hope and others here are far more knowledgable than I am about it.

Unless you will have 10 bit source from your animation house, there would be no immediate need to purchase Magic YUV at present. The free version works great, as does UT Codec.

Again, it's wonderful to see fellow users contributing so much meaningful and thorough test data, including that for hardware intermediates.

If you and that company do not want to pay anything, Lagarith does the job. https://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html
It plays smooth in Vegas and is surprising compressing on the filesize side.
If you have no concerns about storage space on your system and that company too and you want to spend a very reasonable small amount of money, the already mentioned MagicYUV does really a good very smooth playbackjob in Vegas https://www.magicyuv.com/

If you and that company do not want to pay anything, Lagarith does the job

Don't go this way! Very outdated and still have issues. MagicYUV or UT are way better.

The company do not need to buy MagicYUV encoder. They can simply export everything as PNG and then use FFMPEG to encode it to MagicYUV or UT Video. No encoders installation will be required for them required (they are build-in). FFMPED is also single file executable that does not require installation (download and unpack).

You will need to get and install MagicYUV or UT Video codec. I'd recommend you to get the payed version of MagicYUV.

Don't go this way! Very outdated and still have issues. MagicYUV or UT are way better.

I said for a very good reason if you dont want to pay anything. Outdated... does not really matter if it works. What issues exactly are you refering to?

The company do not need to buy MagicYUV encoder. They can simply export everything as PNG and then use FFMPEG to encode it to MagicYUV or UT Video.

I found the performance of UT nothing to brag to much about it, at least not on my systems in the workflow. MagicYUV on the other hand is a overall very nice and smooth experience. I count Lagarith in the middle of those two.

Well, that is a workflow. Given it is a small workflow for people who know what you are saying, but it is a workflow and annoying thing for a company who hired people specific for doing stuff they do not really want to bother with. I include wrapping and packing sequences of pictures into a container with a non GUI tool.

My tests indicate no difference between Magic and UT in RGB mode, either in size, quality, speed, or timeline performance. Lagarith, on the other hand, works fine in Vegas, but was excluded from testing due to a history of buggy performance in libavcodec. When last tested in 2011, Lagarith fared no better than HuffYUV..

2018

2011

Outdated... does not really matter if it works.

New codecs usually uses newer CPU's instructions so they are typically faster even if they use the same algorithms.

What issues exactly are you refering to?

I used to have issues with levels and while doing final render I got black frames in random positions.

These issues disappeared when I re-render intermediates with HuffYUV (nothing else was changed in system and project).

I read about issues others having with the codec.

I found the performance of UT nothing to brag to much about it, at least not on my systems in the workflow. MagicYUV on the other hand is a overall very nice and smooth experience. I count Lagarith in the middle of those two.

I have not tested performance UT vs Magix (ffmpeg in-build variants only) myself. I checked the size of renders only. However, I would noticed if UT was much slower. It was not.

Well, that is a workflow. Given it is a small workflow for people who know what you are saying, but it is a workflow and annoying thing for a company who hired people specific for doing stuff they do not really want to bother with.

I'd include simple cmd file + executable in archive so someone will only need to run the cmd.

It is usually easier that download codec, install it and then setup all these settings in their program to export.

Sure, it should be discussed with first.

My tests indicate no difference between Magic and UT in RGB mode, either in size, quality, speed, or timeline performance

Well, there ARE differences in file size and speed depend on options you use. File size differences are quite significant.

You can try different -pred options (the same option was available in GUI when I played with codecs in VDub. It is just easier to do comparison using CLI for me). I'm still talking about RGB and no quality loss.

Lagarith is to slow. Stay away at all costs. There are many options now aday.

Well, there ARE differences in file size and speed depend on options you use. 

Yes, there are.

Apologies if the differences at different settings are not clearly revealed in the chart you saw above. Predict Left will always be used as a constant, not a variable in my work and testing because it is presumed to produce larger files with slightly better accuracy. Last time I actually tested that was in preparing the 2011 tests, so maybe it's worth another look ;?)

That's about all I can contribute to the factual discussion guys; carry on.

Unless you will have 10 bit source from your animation house, there would be no immediate need to purchase Magic YUV at present. The free version works great, as does UT Codec.

True. Not only Vegas does not seem to be able to do the 10 bit stuff. TMPEnc also prohibits me to encode it in 10bit =(.

get source as .avi YUV 10 bit or Pro Res 422LT 10 bit .mov . Then later , after editing , assuming you want to Deliver the final video to yourself , render the final edit out to h.264 8 bit blu-ray compliant . or possibly 4k h.264 .

the above seems to be what I have learned from the other "in the know" Posters , here in Vegas Pro forum .