How can I render to H.264, 24 Mbps in Vegas 8.1?

jmk396 wrote on 4/11/2009, 10:01 AM
I've just purchased a Canon HF20 and Canon HF11 AVCHD camcorders and they allow recording with 24 Mbps.

However, I can't seem to find the best rendering option in Vegas 8.1 to keep the 24 Mbps quality and 1920x1080.

For example, let's suppose I record in 1920x1080, 60i, and 24 Mbps. What is the best setting in Vegas 8.1? I've found AVCHD but the presets are only as high as 1440x1080. Do I have the manually enter the 1920x1080 resolution?

I also can't seem to enter 24 Mbps for the bitrate.

Can anybody just give the exact settings I need to use to maintain 100% (or as close as possible) to my source material whether its 60i or 24p?

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/11/2009, 10:51 AM
I think this was an issue someone brought up before, you can't render 24mbs/1920x1080 with either the sony or mainconcept codec, but one of them you can.

It's very strange.
jmk396 wrote on 4/11/2009, 11:02 AM
Yeah, I'm a little confused...

Sony AVC has presets for Blu-ray but only up to 1440x1080. It doesn't have 1920x1080, 60i, and it also does not support 24 Mbps.

Mainconcept AVC only has presets up to 640x480 but it supports a constant bitrate up to 240 (!!!) Mbps. It also does NOT support AAC 5.1 surround and it also asks for "Number of reference frames" and "Use deblocking filter?"

I'm very confused...
Hulk wrote on 4/11/2009, 5:28 PM
The Mainconcept will do it but you won't get a BD compliant file so that kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.

This is one area I think Vegas need a bit of fine tuning.

How about a nice BD compliant setting that will render the timeline using 2-pass with a max bitrate of 24mbps?

Right now you have to use the Sony preset for 1920x1080 with a bitrate of 15 or 16, I forget which it is. Then you have to cross your fingers and hope the non-realtime Sony AVC compressor can somehow squeeze your 24Mbps peaks into 16Mbps!

I have the HF100 with a 16Mbps max bitrate so it isn't of great concern to me. But a BD compliant 2-pass rendering option with adjustable bitrate is definitely needed here.

- Mark
jmk396 wrote on 4/13/2009, 5:32 AM
Thanks for the information.

Why doesn't the Mainconcept encoder produce a BD complaint file?

Also, you are correct about the Sony AVC encoder. It seems to only support Main Profile with the highest bitrate of 15 Mbps.

I'm recording in 24 Mbps AVCHD and I'd like to render at nearly the same quality so I guess I'm stuck with the Mainconcept one.

However, neither encoder seems to have presets for 1080i in Vegas 8.1. In Vegas 8.0 they did but they seem to be missing in 8.1.

What settings should I use for 1080i, 24 Mbps, AVC? (custom frame size?, allow source to adjust frame size/rate?, pixel aspect ratio?, number of reference frames? use deblocking filter?)

I'm trying to render at the highest quality possible given my source material...
Hulk wrote on 4/13/2009, 11:03 AM
I'm only saying that I could not get a BD compliant file in DVDA using the MainConcept AVCHD encoding option in Vegas. Perhaps it can be done.

I also can't render a BD compliant 30p stream using the Sony AVC.
farss wrote on 4/13/2009, 1:34 PM
Reading the manual might give you a clue. The section covering the licenses you are granted when you buy Vegas may give you an idea.

Bob.
Hulk wrote on 4/13/2009, 8:33 PM
If you were writing to me...

I was trying to help the original poster with my AVCHD rendering experiences.
farss wrote on 4/14/2009, 12:46 AM
"If you were writing to me..."

No, sorry, my bad.


Bob.