I frameserve all the time. Vegas (v7.0d) HDV to Debugmode Frameserver (v2.3) to either VirtualDub (v1.5.10) or AVISynth/VirtualDub.

Must be a CinemaCraft issue? It's been a while since I checked, but I think CC's HD encoder is much more expensive than the DV version?

Edited: Open up your HDV frameserved avi in VirtualDub and it should be HDV?

I need to clarify. I use CinemaCraft to create MPEG2 files for creating DVDs, not hi-definition disks.

Again, when I tried to frameserve from a Vegas HDV project, I got an error. When I change the project attribute to DV, then the frameserve works fine with CinemaCraft. The question I have is whether I am screwing up my chrominance resolution by changing the Vegas attribute to DV.

Yes, you're losing color information when you use DV as the source.
4:1:1 to 4:2:0 is a mistake that should be avoided whenever possible.

Spot, I'm using the original m2t file as a source.

That's my point-- I'm wondering if I can frameserve the m2t file into CinemaCraft. It works only if I change the project properties from HDV to DV. But the clip on that timeline is still an m2t clip, right? So what I'm wondering is whether Vegas is smart enough to offer full color resolution when downconverting the m2t clip, or if instead it's forcing the resulting data to conform to the NTSC DV spec of 4:1:1.

From what I can tell so far, I'm getting full color resolution, but wanted confirmation.

The beauty of the frameserver is that it outputs uncompressed frames, with or without alpha in RGB, or without alpha (i think) in YUV.

If your project is using an HDV template then the output of the frameserver looks like it's the same frame size as HDV. If you switch to the NTSC DV template then the output will be the same frame size and field order as DV. In neither case do you get that format's color sampling. I'm pretty sure you actually get uncompressed frames, 4:4:4. That won't make a difference to straight footage but it'll make a difference with FX, Text, Graphics, etc.

Most likely the CC encoder can't be fed HDV frames so that's your problem.

I'm going to assume that life isn't so simple that you can just redefine your HDV project as DV and hope everything works out. It'd be nice if it did but I don't expect it.

And finally, I've only taken the most cursory look at frameserver output opened in WMP. I could be talking out of my butt here.

Rob Mack

But he's not using DV footage as source, he's just resetting the project properties to NTSC DV. I don't think that Vegas would change the color sampling until you actually render. Otherwise graphics and text would get crunchy the moment they hit the timeline (which they don't).

Rob

You might have to set a custom field order to the NTSC DV template. Not sure but I just took some SD footage and changed the project to HDV 1080i and it looked like the field order was off. Something to consider, anyway. Maybe going the other direction it matters less because fields have to be discarded.

Rob

But doesn't the frameserver work by intercepting the output to a file via a pipe? In which case what's going out will be DV encoded unless you specify uncompressed.

One other option perhaps worthy of consideration would be to render out to the Sony YUV or the BMD codec. Both are 4:2:2, file size is big but not massive.

Bob.

No, I don't think it works quite that way. You get three choices with the frameserver: RGB24, RGB32, and YUV. The RGB32 includes alpha, of course. These don't really say whether the sampling is 4:1:1, 4:2:2, 4:2:0, or 4:4:4 but the presence of an alpha channel implies 4:4:4.

It's easy enough to check, even by eye. Just open the signpost file in Window Media Player. Try putting generated bars on the timeline and then frameserving it out to WMP. Look, Ma, no artifacts!

I *think* the output is uncompressed, and it makes sense as far as usefulness goes. You get straight frame buffers out of Vegas without the storage overhead of uncompressed.

Keep in mind that even though the Vegas template has the words NTSC DV in it, the template doesn't define the the color sampling - just width, height, frame rate, field order, and PAR.

But of course the content on the timeline makes a difference, and so does the conversion. If you are trying to frameserve HDV to an MPEG encoder then you need to preconvert it to 720x480, which is what's being done by resetting the project template. What that does with pixel aspect ratio and field order is another issue, but changing the template doesn't change the color sampling. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and claim that Vegas' internal sampling is 32-bit 4:4:4.

Rob Mack