Thanks for the info. But I totally lost you. I've got a bunch of questions from your post:

-- What is 'frame serving'?

-- Is On2 Flix Pro DebugMode Framerserver utility a Vegas renderer? If so, where do you get it?

-- What Vegas renderer do you use to render h.264 mp4's?

-- What is JW FLV player and where do you get it?

It sounds all of these still introduce one or more external steps. Is there anything that will simply render/export a .FLV formatted version of the project just like all of the other renderers in Vegas? I'm really trying to avoid a bunch of extra steps outside of Vegas for every project in my workflow.

Thx

I'm sorry, Vegas does not have native flv export, nor do I know of any plugin that will do this from within Vegas.

You would need to incorporate "one or more external steps" like Super or the frameserving workflow described above. Rendering h.264 -> Super -> FLV works just fine for me.

Ok, Thx for the info. I'm using Super now. I've got the latest version. But h.264 rendering is grayed out for FLV. Are you pre-rendering h.264? If so, what are using to render it?

Thx again.

I don't particularly care for Super - it's free, but the user interface is convoluted IMO.

Frame serving to On2 Flix Pro is a more elegant solution for my needs - it's simple and does the one thing I need it to do - which is create FLV's in the VP6 codec for web delivery.

h264 is specific to encoding MP4 files, not FLV. I do consulting for my paying clients on a regular basis for embedding video into their websites that results in exactly what they're needing for their website video content.

You can download the JW FLV player here

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | solo video journalism blog

I'm sorry for appearing so dense. But I still don't understand what your process is.

What renderer do you use in vegas to get an h.264 mp4?

Or do you render out an AVI from Vegas and use a 3rd party program to convert to h.264 mp4?

Then you upload the h.264 mp4 file and have the flash player play it instead of an FLV file?

Not sure what you meant by the sentence about paying clients. Are you saying if I need additional information about how to do this, I have to start paying you?

Well, since I do my editing in Vegas, I render to .mp4 in Vegas.
Then I convert to .flv in Super.
Sorry I wasn't clearer about this before.

What nobody has explained, is what the Frameserver does.
This is a free plug in, but you'll have to do a search to find a link to the download.
What this fantastic tool does, is it allows you to do all your editing in Vegas and when you're ready to render, you use it to Frameserve (send) everything you've edited on your timeline to a different program to be rendered there. It works great.
Do a search here, for Satish Frameserver and read up on it. It's very simple to use, once you do it. You're bound to find instructions in the search. Also, you may find a link to the Frameserver. If not, google.
You'll have to follow somebody else's advice about FLV - h264 choices.

http://dvformat.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=31028&afterinter=true is a tutorial on Frameserving in Vegas.
Lose the Nero part, you'll have it made.

You don't need any extra steps.

Flash will play an mp4 file exported directly from vegas. You don't need .flv any more.

The only possible drawback is that file won't play progressively. It will have to be downloaded completely before the flash player plays it. If that's a problem there is a way around it, which has been described around here somewhere. search for moov atom.

Vegas can render h.264 to mp4 directly? Or is that only available via the Frame Serve option?

I use mainconcept mp4 render setting and it plays fine in flash player.

Your visitors would need to have at least version v 9.0.115.0 which was released over a year ago. about 56% of people have version 10, version 9 is at 98%, so I would guess that at least 75% can view it without downloading newer version of what they already have.

If you don't want to use frame server, you can :

1.Render from Vegas in highest quality .mov MP4 quality in the final format (size, frame rate) and encode with Flix.

2. Use free Riva FLV encoder to encode directly from the rendered (render to new track) file on timeline. That's what i do now...

deusx said:

I wrote a detailed tutorial on my blog on how to address this issue. Make sure you read the comments thread as well.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ blog

I'm not quite sure what you are attempting to accomplish by insulting me this way. I really thought this was a professional forum where users could get legitimate questions answered. Your insulting comments have no place in a professional environment. What did I do that gives you the right to attack my character?

I DO have 31 years of experience as a software developer and architect for one of largest computer companies in the world. And I can and have debugged software all my life. And I CAN debug anything given the right amount of knowledge. I am also a professor in a major university teaching internet technology, and I have 46 US patents. I fail to see why this somehow eliminates me from the right to ask questions on your forum about video, which I am still relatively new at.

I don't know everything about everything. But apparently you do. And you have enough time on your hands to insult other Vegas users just trying to get more knowledge about the product and the business.

I would insult you and tell you to let your daddy back on the computer as you so rudely said to me. But I've been around long enough to know your type. I guess it somehow makes you feel important to put other people down. Are you this rude to everybody? Or do you selectively pick out people to insult?

Would your highness prefer that I not take up any more of your precious space on your forum?

No intent whatsoever to insult.
I saw a disparity from your previous threads. I also saw lots of posts asking essentially the same things that had been answered. My response was obviously off base, but not intended to be unprofessional.
I also apologize for any embarrassment my comments caused you.
The fact that I was wrong in my conclusion is also an embarrassment to me and I take full responsibility.
I have retracted my comments, apologize unconditionally, and will not bother you again, ever. That is my promise.

What is frame serving?

Frame Serving is a technique used to transfer video and audio data from one application to another, particularly from one video editing application to another, for whatever reason, without the need to fully render a video file between them.

For instance, you can use the video editing and filtering capability of one application and then the encoding capability of a second application, where frame serving allows you to skip the creation of a potentially large video file and just pass the filtered frames to the secondary application, as is.

Another use of frame serving is to serve video and data to an application that does not understand the source format. If you have an application that can open MOV files and your MPEG encoder can read only AVI files, then you can open the .MOV file in your NLE and use Debugmode FrameServer to serve the a/v data to your MPEG encoder. This increases compatibility between applications.



What is DebugMode Frameserver

DebugMode Frameserver is a plugin for non-linear editors like Sony Vegas, enabling them to export their timeline video and audio data outside of the application so that other applications can use the timeline directly as input.

Debugmode Frameserver can also export the video from your NLE as an Image sequence. Frames can be saved in lossless BMP, TIFF, PNG and high quality JPEG formats.

You can download DebugMode Framserver v2.5 here.



How do I install DebugMode Frameserver?

1. Download the ZIP file which contains the installer here. Extract the installer named fssetup.exe and run it.

Setup Screen 1

2. Read the license agreement and agree to continue.

Setup Screen 2

3. Select the programs you would like to install DebugMode Frameserver as a plugin to. In this example, I'm only installing DebugMode Frameserver as a plugin to Sony Vegas.

Setup Screen 3

4. Select the install directory for the main DebugMode Frameserver application.

Setup Screen 4

5. Select the shared plugins file format directory for the Sony Vegas.

Setup Screen 5

6. You'll be prompted to create shortcuts into the start menu, this isn't necessary to use DebugMode Frameserver, but I usually do.

Setup Screen 6

7. You'll be prompted to read a text file, but this isn't necessary and the text file doesn't contain any Sony Vegas specific instructions.



How do I use DebugMode Frameserver in Sony Vegas?

1. After opening the video project you would like to frame serve, go to the File menu and select Render As to open the default render dialog (make sure your project uses 8/16 bit audio, they are the only supported formats).

Render Screen 2

2. Select DebugMode FrameServer as the type of file you will be exporting.

Render Screen 3

3. Enter a valid filename for the output file. I named mine served.avi and click "Save" to start frame serving.

Render Screen 4

5. You will be prompted with some advanced options, the defaults will work fine.

Render Screen 5

You're ready to go, open this frame served avi (my was named served.avi) in your secondary application. The video and audio with all of your effects and filters applied from Sony Vegas will will be piped live to the secondary application.

Good Job Jonathan!

It's really something you'd have to try, and you might find yourself thinking "That's it?" The beauty of it is that essentially gives you uncompressed output (a frame at a time) without dropping an uncompressed file on your hard drive. And it creates frames for your external encoder "as needed" and the whole process goes pretty quickly.

And the new ability to do image sequences is very nice too. You could also frameserve out to Quicktime and instruct it to export the frame sequence if you like. Very handy and Satish ought to get paid.

Rob Mack

Jonathan,

That's the best post I've seen in any forum, anywhere on the web, in the past six months. Fantastic job.