Thanks for all the info guys. I love video making, but the technical aspect sure can make my head hurt at times. This is another dumb question, but how do you tell what codec your video is?

JR, where can I acquire a Digital Intermediaries program such as CineForm? If it's lossless, then it should be good with any kind of conversion, even if you don't wanna port it to After Effects.

I'm looking for a codec and bit rate that would be best for my Standard Def DV AVI videos as well as my HD M2T videos for YouTube as well as for future DVD/Blu-ray authoring.

Also, will the File | Import | Camcorder Disc method work with a DVD or Blu-Ray movie, or would there be copyright restrictions? If not, then what kind of DVD/Blu-Ray ripper do you recommend? A few years ago on Camcorderinfo.com, DVD Decrypter was recommended to me. It works, but I don't care too much for it. I'd rather have something that would convert the movie onto my computer as one big video. With this program the movie is in several chunks, and I don't really understand the pattern. They don't seem to be separated by scenes.

One more thing... I've been going through and organizing/capturing my old MiniDV tapes. My Canon HV20 will tell me the dates of the videos that I shot on it, and even the dates of the videos that I shot with my old Canon ZR100... but it won't tell me the dates of the videos that were shot with my old JVC GR-D347U. I sold that camera a few years back, but I've sense bought another one just like it, and when I play my tape in there it won't tell me the date of the recordings either. Is there any way that I could find out when the footage from my JVC cam was recorded? I wonder if that Scenalyzer program that riredale recommended would work?

"how do you tell what codec your video is? "

The tool most people use is Mediainfo.
https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

> "Did you mean "DV SD doesn't use interframe compression . . ." ?"

Yes, I did. Good spotting. I corrected it. Thanks!

~jr

> "JR, where can I acquire a Digital Intermediaries program such as CineForm? If it's lossless, then it should be good with any kind of conversion, even if you don't wanna port it to After Effects."

It use to be free with Vegas Pro, then Sony stopped including it and you had to buy it, but now it comes free with GoPro Studio. So just download and install GoPro Studio and you'll get the CineForm codec. Then go into your Video for Windows (*.avi) templates and create a new one that uses the CineForm codec.

> "I'm looking for a codec and bit rate that would be best for my Standard Def DV AVI videos as well as my HD M2T videos for YouTube as well as for future DVD/Blu-ray authoring. "

The best codec for DV AVI is DV AVI. For HD footage CineForm is a good choice.

> "Also, will the File | Import | Camcorder Disc method work with a DVD or Blu-Ray movie, or would there be copyright restrictions? "

If the disc is copy protected it won't work. It is meant to be use with discs that you created (like Camcorder discs).

> "If not, then what kind of DVD/Blu-Ray ripper do you recommend?"

I like AnyDVD because it's a driver that decrypts at the OS level. Then you can use whatever software that you want including Vegas Pro. I'm not even sure if it's legal to make digital copies of DVD's that you own anymore. The whole thing is quite ridiculous in this day and age of mobile devices and I haven't followed the legal mumbo jumbo so use at your own risk and don't be a pirate.

> "...it won't tell me the dates of the videos that were shot with my old JVC GR-D347U."

That's really odd. The timecode is part of the DV stream. Maybe another capture tool can see it. I avoid buying any JVC equipment because they're always doping non-standard stuff that causes their video to be problematic.

~jr

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"I just wish that it worked for ALL video formats"

It (smart rendering) also works with HDV, but yeah.

It will not work with most long-gop HD formats, simply because these formats encode too many frames together. Though ffmpeg will let you 'pre-cut' other formats without re-rendering, if you can stomach it's commandline

If you want to properly smart render trimmed video, use Womble, VideoRedo, TMPGEnc Smart Renderer, AVS Video Remaker, Smart Cutter, etc. but not Vegas.

This is great information! I am in the middle of a similar situation. I used my PC and Sony Vegas Pro 13 to create my film The King's Highway - and although Amazon Video and IndieFlix accepted my MainConcept 1080p MP4 video file, a new distributor who sent me a contract this weekend is asking for an Apple ProRes 422 HQ file with specific Audio specs too. Now I do own a fairly new Macbook pro, and I also have Apple Compressor 4. But does anyone know how I can render out my movie from SVP as a completely lossless / uncompressed file that my macbook / compressor will accept and render that out so that the distributor will accept it without errors? Any help will save my life! ☺️

**Update** I just tried exporting it from vegas as a Sony MXF HD422 1920x1080-60i 50 Mbps file, but it won't open in Compressor on my Mac. So back to the drawing board...any ideas?**

I'm not al all familiar with Compressor, but I'd try Sony XAVC Intra. It's worth a five minute sample render.

Thanks I did just try that, but Compressor on my Macbook won't open that file, any ideas why?

 

Have you tried rendering from Vegas using Quicktime Unconstrained which is lossless?

 

no, but i'm going to try that right now, thanks for posting that video, wow! ☺️

 

**Update** I just tried exporting it from vegas as a Sony MXF HD422 1920x1080-60i 50 Mbps file, but it won't open in Compressor on my Mac. So back to the drawing board...any ideas?**

What version of Apple Compressor are you using? I use Compressor 4.3.2 and I can open Sony MXF HD422 files just fine on my MacBook Pro. That's the format I always using when transferring from Vegas Pro to Final Cut Pro X or Compressor. That should work.

~jr

thanks JR, yeah that could be the issue then as I have version 4.1.3. I'll grab 4.3.2 and see if that works. Are you saying that a Sony MXF HD422 file is better than an uncompressed MOV? Also, do you know if when I export from compressor as Prores 422 HQ that it will give me these specs automatically?

Pro Res 422 HQ

1920 × 1080

Native Frame Rate

Film: 23.98, 25 (Pal) or 28.97

Audio: Must have 8 channels of audio, or if not shot with 5.1 then you may submit in Stereo:

5.1 – L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs / PCM Little Endian / Each audio channel needs to be its own track

Ch. 7 stereo left, Ch. 8 stereo right / PCM Little Endian / Each audio channel needs to be its own track

Sony MXF HD422 isn't "better than an uncompressed MOV". But it Is adequate and produces a lot smaller files.

Size comparison for 10 second render.

Still, I'm not JR.

thanks again John. Yeah the file size is enormous...for an uncompressed MOV it would come out to roughly 840GB for my 98 minute film. I was thinking of rendering it out to a 1 TB drive I have, and then transferring it to my macbook to convert in compressor. I feel like that would be the way to go since the uncompressed MOV is native to mac. I'm not opposed to rendering the Sony MXF HD422, I'm only concerned with quality, and whether or not I'll get the specs I listed in the above post.

As John Dennis pointed out, an uncompressed format which is lossless will be higher quality than using a lossy codec but the question is, "will you notice the difference?" and "is the file size really worth it?" I don't believe so. I guess it depends on what cameras you used to shoot it. If you shot it at a higher bit rate than 50Mbps for HD then you might want to use uncompressed. You could also use Avid DNxHD which will give you smaller files than uncompressed but allows higher bitrates than Sony MXF. You would also need to install Avid DNxHD on your Mac if you went this route.

As for the ProRes specs, the video will be fine but file you render from Vegas Pro will need to have 8 channels of audio to start with. If you don't know how to do this, you might want to check out my tutorial on audio channel mapping in QuickTime here: Multichannel Render Template in Vegas Pro

~jr

Wow JR, thanks for the additional info. So I tried to install Compressor 4.3.2 and it wouldn't open, got an error. 4.1.3 does open and work fine. But I also installed Final Cut Pro 10.2.1 because the distributor emailed me this after I sent them this screenshot of the exported Prores 422 HQ file from compressor:

This file does look fine. That being said, unless you put the new file back into Final Cut and observe the audio meter, you can't tell if you have "dual mono" or truly have two different audio tracks, one for the left and one for the right that are different.  Please check this before you send the drive.

I did put the file in Final Cut, and can't seem to find the audio meter. But i did dig around and clicked on "Channel Configuration" to find it was indeed "stereo" and not "dual mono". I'm guessing this is what they meant?

I apologize for my ignorance on all of this. I have been using SVP for 10 years and hardly touch my macbook unless I'm testing an app my developer sends me in Xcode 🙃

As for the ProRes specs, the video will be fine but file you render from Vegas Pro will need to have 8 channels of audio to start with. If you don't know how to do this, you might want to check out my tutorial on audio channel mapping in QuickTime here: Multichannel Render Template in Vegas Pro

Duly noted JR! I will check out the template, I already see it's full of screenshots, wonderful! Thanks for all of your hard work on everything you've been doing for the past several decades, it shows! :)

I did put the file in Final Cut, and can't seem to find the audio meter. But i did dig around and clicked on "Channel Configuration" to find it was indeed "stereo" and not "dual mono". I'm guessing this is what they meant?

Yes, that is what they meant and yes, it looks like your audio is stereo.

As for where are the audio meters... you are using an older version of Final Cut Pro X than me, but to show the audio meters you would either use Window > Show Audio Meters or Window > Show in Workspace > Audio Meters depending on your version of FCP X (mine is the latter). Either way Shift+Command+8 (⇧⌘8) will toggle them on and off. They are located at the far right side of the timeline when they are visible.

There is also always a small audio meter displayed next to the timeline readout under the transport controls.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad I could help.

~jr

Yes, that is what they meant and yes, it looks like your audio is stereo.

Thank you JR, and the kind words are well deserved. So according to the audio being stereo, this means that it will pass the specs they are looking for? Or do I still have to do the 8 channels of audio tutorial / render...?

I believe the specs said that if you did not record in 5.1 Surround that 2 channel stereo would be acceptable so you are OK.

The 8 channels would be 6 channels of surround (L,R,C,LR,RR,LFE) and 2 channels for stereo (L,R). I think you are good to go.

~jr