Finished Video is poor

Chrisjg wrote on 8/12/2010, 1:53 AM
Hello the, I'm new to Sony Vegas and am having a rather large problem.

Simply put:" If I Render Footage in AVI its fine, If I render in WMV its poor qulity, the video is not very sharp, and it almost looks a tad slow?" This happens if I capture in either WMV or AVI.

AVI has too larger file size for me, so I would like to Render in WMV, but I keep getting the above problem, I'm not an expert, and I'm trying too learn but it all seems rather over whelming, and I seem to be getting deeper and deeper stuck.

Specs:
Windows Vista 64 bit
Sony Vegas Platnintum 8.0
Cam Corder, Panasonic NV DS27 DV
Capture method: Fire wire (note: footage always captures fine.
As for Sony Vegas's Render settings I can't say...I've tried so many, and each one goes wrong.

Some help from someone who knows what there doing would be very kind.

As this problem is so anoying, Windows movie Maker will produce a perfect movie, but SV won't, what am I doing wrong?

~Chris~

Comments

farss wrote on 8/12/2010, 5:14 AM
Questions:

1) What are your project settings?
2) What are your render settings? I know you say you've tried zillions of different ones but give us at least one to work with.
3) You say AVI is too big but if it's DV like your source files captured from your camera then it will not be THAT big. I suspect you're rendering to Uncompressed.

Bob.

ushere wrote on 8/12/2010, 5:33 AM
a. what do you want the end result to play on? dvd, pc, web?

b. does your project settings equal you captured footage format?

opps, didn't see your reply bob..... at least we're thinking along similar lines ;-)
Earl_J wrote on 8/12/2010, 6:35 AM
Hello Chris,welcome to Sony Vegas and our forum here as well...
lots of expertise and knowledge here ... much of which can be accessed with just a question, as you will soon discover.
If I might recommend something to keep you from loading and re-loading your system information each time you request assistance and helpers need to know your system information ... look above at the tabs across the the top of the screen; you'll see the My Account tab ... if you hover your mouse over it, it will display a drop-down menu ... near the bottom, you'll see System Information ... select it and fill out the subsequent display of fields; you may not know all of it, but fill out as much as you know - brand of computer, CPU, processor speed, amount of RAM, 32- or 64-bit OS, video card, and the version of Vegas you're using are a few of the essentials and a good starting point. You may go back and edit the entries as you find out more about your system. You may also add more than one system (if you have more than one running Vegas)...
In that way, people who might offer to help can find your system specs before they form a response without having to wait for you to post it in another message.
* * *
In my mind (and I often don't understand everything I know about computers), AVI is the best uncompressed format for us regular video joes... anything that creates a smaller file must compromise on that original format; so yes, once converted, it may look degraded in quality.
When you render for DVD, it goes to mp2 ... when you render for Internet, it goes to mp4.
Very broadly and generally speaking ... you will certainly get more specific guidance from more experienced and knowledgeable individuals here, but you at least need to give them a starting point ( how did you obtain the video - off a DVD, from a dowload, or taped it yourself ? ) as well as where you want it to go for most viewing (DVD, Internet, PowerPoint slideshow ? ).
* * *
They understand your frustrations and really want to help, so please don't get turned off by the responses for more input before they output any solutions or recommendations.
* * *
Guys, I am not apologizing for you or attempting to put words in your mouths; I'm simply trying to welcome Chris and put him at ease for the questions he may receive in response to his questions... neither am I speaking on your behalf or attempting to interpret what you said ... just posting my own observations make feel a little more comfortable here, that's all.
I hope you guys know me better than that by now ... (grin)
* * *
Finally,Chris, I hope none of what I said above is any sort of insult to your intelligence; I'm just trying to mention a few things to ease the anxiety you might have about coming here... and a bit of technical advice that might be of some use down the road.

With all that said, it appears you're on the wrong forum. If you have Platinum in any version, that is Vegas Movie Studio - not Vegas Pro, which is why we're here. Not a problem ... you'll still get a bit of help that may save your project . . .

Once again ... welcome to any Sony Vegas . . . you chose wisely... (wink)

[B]UPDATE:[/B] I did go to your system information ... only 1 GB of RAM will certainly extend your render times. I also visited the Movies Studio forum ... you were there asking the same questions; it did not appear that you found any resolution to your problem. Several appropriate responses were offered, but no feedback from you about what happened when you tried them.
People are willing to help; you're going to have to do your part an let them know if their suggestions were tried and whether they worked or not.
Give us some help by letting us know how our help is doing, okay?

Until that time ... Earl J.
Chrisjg wrote on 8/12/2010, 7:07 AM
Thankyou for the replys, and Earl thankyou for your welcome. I'll try and reply in future.

Project Settings:

Template: PAL DV (720x576, 25.000 fps)

720x576

Frame rate: 25.000 (PAL)

Pixel Ratio: 1.0926 (PAL DV)

Render Settings: Audio: 64 Kbps, 44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo.
Video: 25.000 fps, 720x576, Quality VBR 90, WMV V9 Compression.

Sorry if this is not right, I am a newbie at this.

Uncompressed? Thanks I'll look into it.

What I would like to do with my footage is play it on the PC, and upload to you tube.

Thanks again.

Earl_J wrote on 8/12/2010, 9:58 AM
Hello Chris,
well, now, your indications on PAL put a whole different slant on this subject...
You are speaking about a country outside the NTSC footprint.
I'll let those who are more familiar with that sort of thing respond.

Until that time ... Earl J.
Chienworks wrote on 8/12/2010, 10:59 AM
"Video: 25.000 fps, 720x576, Quality VBR 90, WMV V9 Compression."

Is that 90Kbps? If so that's really way too low. for that frame size and frame rate you'll probably want at least 2000Kbps for mediocre quality.
CorTed wrote on 8/12/2010, 11:02 AM
I was helping someone the other day who had bad results on video quality after they rendered it.
There is a quality setting when rendering which can be set to "good" or "best". Not sure about this, but I think it defaults to "good".

When you render to the "good" quality the results appear less than that....

I suggest you set the render quality to "best" and see if the results improve.


Ted
John_Cline wrote on 8/12/2010, 11:08 AM
First of all, DV video is interlaced, WMV is typically progressive as are computer monitors and YouTube. Under "File" > "Project Properties" make sure that the "Deinterlace method" is set to something other than "NONE." I suggest setting it to "Interpolate" and leaving it there permanently.

Secondly, even though PAL DV is 720x576, that's based on non-square pixels to display on a television. Computer monitors are based on square pixels. 720x576 is the incorrect aspect ratio for display on a computer monitor or to upload to YouTube.

YouTube is based on NTSC standards and they recommend 640x480 as the image size for uploading standard definition stuff. You can set this image size under the "Custom" settings. Set the "Pixel Aspect Ratio" to "1.0." The 25 fps frame rate of your PAL video does not need to be changed.

For watching on your computer, I recommend 720x540 or 768x576 which are both 4:3 or 1.3333:1.

Lastly, set the audio to at least 128kbps, 64Kbps is a little too low for high quality audio.
farss wrote on 8/12/2010, 2:32 PM
A couple of things in addition to what John Cline has said:

1) In your project setting, Audio tab, make certain the sample rate is 48KHz. Not going to make much difference at this stage but the default 44.1KHz is wrong for DV.

2) As you're resizing the video to encode to WMV render at Best, not Good quality.

3) One very important value is the bitrate at which you're encoding the WMV. For SD 2M bits per second should give good results and a reasonable file size. Also move the quality slider to 100%

4) When in doubt just render say 1 minute of your project and check the results.

Bob.
John_Cline wrote on 8/12/2010, 3:16 PM
Bob is correct that the sample rate of DV video is 48k. In fact most video formats are 48k. However, YouTube specifies an audio sample rate of 44.1k. I'm sure that if you upload a file at 48k, YouTube will resample it to 44.1k. Would you rather trust YouTube or Vegas to do your resampling? Vegas, of course. Make sure you get into the Project Properties and under the Audio tab, set the "Resample and stretch quality" to "Best." (I just noticed that Chrisjg is running Vegas Platinum, that's a completely different animal than Vegas Pro. Questions about VMS Platinum should be directed to the Vegas Movie Studio forum.)

Kelly, VBR 90 is a 90% quality setting.
Chrisjg wrote on 8/13/2010, 12:09 AM
Thankyou for the many replys, I need to get some footage off my cam corder and give it a go. I'll get back when I can. Thanks again

This will take some time to give everything ago,

-Chris
Chrisjg wrote on 8/13/2010, 2:16 AM
Hello again,

Well after changing some things in the custom render settings and the project properties, I have achevied the result I desired!

Many thanks to all for the help, advice, and replys. I don't doubt I'll be back for more help at one time or another, but when that time comes I'll be sure to post in the right forum! not Vegas pro.

I'm now of to make a short film to test to double check everything is all in order.

Regards and thanks again!

-Chris
Earl_J wrote on 8/13/2010, 2:01 PM
Hey Chris,
I'm glad you were able to get a final resolution to your problem ...

Until that time ... Earl J.
CorTed wrote on 8/13/2010, 3:59 PM
Chris,

Out of curiousity and possible help to others reading this thread in the future... what settings did you change to get the desired results.

Ted
Chrisjg wrote on 8/14/2010, 12:18 AM
I changed the Deinterlace method the pixcel aspect ratio (render settings) and the video qulity slider.

Thanks again.