Field dominance issues in Vegas 11/ 595

larry-peter wrote on 3/28/2012, 11:14 AM
I'm not confident at all in rendering for broadcast in the current build. I'd like to see if anyone else has encountered these problems:

Goal: render NTSC standard 720X486 spot projects to 720X480 files for DTV broadcasters as I have been doing for years.

Per other threads regarding field and rendering issues in 11, I created totally new render templates in Vegas 11. Clicked on CPU only rendering. Rendered 720 X 480 in both MC MPEG2 (modifying the NTSC Program Stream template) and MC AVC MP4, both formats lower field first. Video inspector shows the MPEG2 to be lower field first. QT player plays back MP4 fine, but I have no external app to check field dominance on MP4s, always just relied on Vegas clip properties to check.

Create a 720 X 480 NTSC DV LFF project in Vegas and bring the MPEG2 and MP4 files into the timeline. Play out through AJA Kona into production monitor. The fields are inverted. Clip properties on both clips show LFF. Change project properties to UFF and playback is beautiful.

I'm following the same workflow I have for years in previous versions of Vegas and in previous builds of V11. Never had this happen before. I also can not render anything with Sony AVC - native templates or ones I create. "An unknown error has occurred" or something very similar. I guess I'm going to reload 10, but my editing experience in V11/595 has been very pleasant till this point.

So now I can't be sure if Vegas is inverting field dominance, misreading field dominance, rendering with opposite dominance than set in the templates... I'm waiting to hear from the stations if they truly have LFF files they can use. Not pleased at the moment. Any others seeing this?

Larry

Comments

Former user wrote on 3/28/2012, 11:34 AM
Your Kona was set up for 720 x 480, not 486?
Dave T2
larry-peter wrote on 3/28/2012, 12:06 PM
720 X 480 isn't an option on the Kona's playback from Vegas, but in the past it has displayed correctly. I've always assumed that it is playing the 480 output within the 486 window in the same way the broadcasters are using the 480 material within the NTSC 486 broadcast window. There appears to be no resizing going on - picture and text just as sharp as the 486 original. If Kona was resizing I would expect the same type of blurred look as rendering this using "stretch video to fill frame" would give going from 486 to 480.

I just tested in V 10 and everything worked as expected - except now in V10 I can once again use Sony AVC. The MPEG2 and MC created MP4 play fine in a LFF 720X480 project . The Sony AVC has inverted fields. Have to change it's properties to UFF for it to display correctly. Something seems amiss and have never seen this before. Hopefully I haven't been asleep at the wheel for the past 3 years.
larry-peter wrote on 3/28/2012, 12:28 PM
Dave, maybe you're right and the Kona is doing something differently in V 11. When I put the files in a 720 X 486 project, in V11 they play as expected with LFF and set to maintain aspect ratio. I can't see any difference in size or positioning on the production monitor in the 480 or 486 projects - both are equally sharp. But the fields are incorrect in the 480 project. So I think the files were rendered properly, but still can't figure out why Sony AVC won't render anything in the current build.

Thanks,
Larry
Former user wrote on 3/28/2012, 1:32 PM
I don't know why it would have worked before, but it makes sense to me that it would be inverted if you are sending a 720 x 480 to a 486 output. Normally, these devices, if they are not scaling, would fill out the 6 lines by having 3 blank lines on top and 3 on bottom. Here is the problem, now line 1(which was odd) is now line 4 (which is even) and thus your field order is reversed.

The SONY AVC problem I don't have a clue.

Dave T2
larry-peter wrote on 3/28/2012, 2:48 PM
That all makes sense, Dave. Not having looked at my Kona settings (or even if such settings are available) I always figured it was displaying 480 material with 4 lines blank at top, which I thought was standard. If it's centering the image when previewing from V11, that would exactly explain the field inversion. But it seems to be doing it correctly in V10 projects. I'll check further to make sure I'm not crazy or overlooking something/

Thanks,
Larry