HDV Rendering Question

michaelshive wrote on 10/23/2007, 6:11 AM
I'm working on a HDV project shot with Sony V1U's with footage shot in 1080i 24P mode. Now that I'm done editing I am having problems rendering / printing to tape. I need this to go back to tape so no other export options will work. I've tried rendering/printing 6 times now and only once did it export the entire timeline. The rest of the exports it hangs up at different times during the render. The render takes about 6 hours on average and sometimes it hangs up during the last hour. I've updated to 8.0a with no difference.

So first of all, I'm wondering why it would be hanging up during the rendering. Secondly, I'm wondering what possible workarounds exist. If I render it as a series of M2T files and then place them in the timeline, what will happen when Vegas goes to print to tape? Will it recompress the M2T files again and create a new one? If so, will the 2nd generation files look bad?

Should I try exporting the whole thing to a Cineform AVI intermediate and then render?

Comments

IN1ACCORD Productions wrote on 10/23/2007, 7:21 AM
Your explanation doesn't cover enough to know how to specifically answer. I'll assume you are printing back to the V1U via firewire. You mention rendering so if you are using File>Render that is the wrong way to print to tape. It's Tools>Print to HDV. Then you go through the steps/pages to print back to your camera. There are a few things to watch for including: pick camera, set resolution (1920x1080 24p for you), where to render temporary files (shouldn't be C drive, browse and pick your storage drive). If you have no effects or changes to video Vegas should not re-render those clips but if everything has something added or tweaked it will need to re-render everything. Hope that helps.
IN1ACCORD Productions wrote on 10/23/2007, 7:22 AM
Sorry, it's Tools>Print Video to HDV.
michaelshive wrote on 10/23/2007, 7:34 AM
Thanks for the reply. Yes, firewire to HDV (printing back to the V1U). You can use File>Render and render to the correct format, then when you do print to tape (using Tools / Print to HDV) specify the file that you rendered as the file that you want to use. Also, you must use the 1080 60i or 50i template when printing to the V1U. Any other template will not work.

Any other ideas? I was able to piece together the 2 M2T renders (first one from 0-19 minutes, second one from 19-22 minutes) into a new track in the timeline and was able to send that out successfully to tape, however, I really don't want to lose a generation of compression rendering to M2T twice.
Jeff9329 wrote on 10/23/2007, 8:17 AM
I would suggest rendering to a m2t file in the proper format on your hard drive. The m2t is a transport stream file just like the print to tape file.

There are several import/export tools (software) available to export back to the camera or "print to tape". I don't use Sony cameras, but does Sony have a import/export piece of software? I would think that would be most stable and compatable.

Using a separate piece of software should eliminate the potential communication errors during your extremely long render (6 hours?) and make the print to tape real time.

I can't remember the name of the generic program that works good, but you could also try Videolan, its a little tougher to operate though.
michaelshive wrote on 10/23/2007, 9:38 AM
I guess I'm not being clear enough. The render hangs no matter which why I try to do it - PTT or File / Render As. Thus, I am unable to get the entire file out of Vegas successfully.
Jeff9329 wrote on 10/23/2007, 10:33 AM
Out of curiosity and troubleshooting, what are your system specs, OS and pagefile size?

Are you rendering on all four cores?

I haven't had to try, but you could smart render in batches for files no greater than 1GB and then do a final smart render/PTT with all the clips on the timeline.

Im lucky that my systems have never had a problem on long (1hr+) HDV projects. Hopefully one of the masters has a good suggestion for you.
teaktart wrote on 10/23/2007, 10:35 AM
Curious how long your finished project is?

If the original footage was shot in 1080 @ 24 fps shouldn't he be able to print-to-tape in that same format ?

Eileen
michaelshive wrote on 10/23/2007, 11:22 AM
Correct me if I'm wrong but "smart rendering" HDV just creates a series of small Cineform intermediate AVI files, yes? I'm still not understanding what happens to the footage going between M2T - Cineform - and back to M2T.
michaelshive wrote on 10/23/2007, 11:23 AM
PTT to the V1U can only be done using the 50i or 60i 1080 template in Vegas. The original footage was shot in 24P which is wrapped in the 1080i signal, so it is really 1080i. The finished project is about 23 minutes long.