Best quality for existing setup

drl wrote on 9/15/2008, 6:53 AM

Hi
I realise this question is similar to to others posted but I am new to HD video and to Vegas software so on a steep learning curve here and hope someone can advise bearing in mind the equipment I'm using.
I am using Sony Vegas 9.0a Platinum and using a PC with 3.3ghz AMD Processor and 1gb Ram. Loads of space on my hard drive.
I have a Panasonic HDC SD9 camcorder and take movies at the highest setting of HA1920. There is no direct import facility for this particular camera into Vegas because there is no IEEE firewire on the camera so I download to the PC via the connected USB to Sony’s HD Writer 2.5E for HDC and the files are saved to hard drive. I am then able to locate the .m2ts files and drag them in to my Vegas Project Media area and then into the editing area. The media file is shown as 1920x1080x12, 25,000 fps at this point.
My question is as follows:
I will be outputting to DVD via DVD Architect Studio 4.5 and I wish to have the best of resolutions, bearing in mind that at present I do not have a HD Televison, but a good quality CRT Widescreen and will be playing the DVD on a Phillips DVDR80/051 which is connected to the TV. So, at this point in time I have no means of viewing HD but just want the best quality available.
What settings should I use in both Vegas – ‘Render As’ and also ‘Properties’ - and Architect to achieve the best result with minimum of loss.
Look forward to receiving any advice please.
Thanks

Comments

gogiants wrote on 9/15/2008, 1:15 PM

Some thoughts that others might correct and/or add to...

Since you'll be going to standard def DVD, you'll always be outputting to the same screen resolution (640x480).

One choice will be to letterbox (black bars top/bottom) or not. That decision will not affect image quality itself, so it is a matter of preference. Letterboxing will ensure you don't lose anything on the sides of your images.

Another choice that is made for you is the final output file format. As I understand it, this will be MPEG-2 since that is what the DVD standard prescribes. Regardless of any other formats used, ultimately DVD Architect will render to this format.

So, the thing you can control for image quality is bit rate. Higher bit rates will produce "better" video, but will produce larger files and thus keep you from including as much content on a single disc. You might try creating a few copies of the same clip, specifying different bit rates when you render out the copies, and see what your personal level of tolerance is. (You'll want to make sure that DVD Architect preserves the original bitrate instead of converting it.) I did this a long time ago and found that I personally couldn't tell the difference, even using a relatively "low" bitrate even for a clip with a lot of motion. (Disclaimer: I have a lousy TV.)

Side note: you might think about a site like Vimeo that lets you post videos that ultimately show up as 720p on their site. The quality is quite good to my eye.

One other thing: wouldn't an SD card reader save you time on the file import?

drl wrote on 9/15/2008, 2:31 PM

Thanks a lot for all that info, all very useful. Will have a few practice runs as you suggest,