I agree with rs170a. 80 minutes is a long section and with many FX applied, can be a problem. So sometimes you may have to break it down to get the job done. That's when you may need to either make one long rerendered .avi or several small .avi's. But if the original source is fairly simple, just go straight to mpg2.

i frame serve it out to another encoder most often

the longest I've done so far has been about 45 minutes, and that was a single render off the timeline. In my Pinnacle Studio days, I did method 3 because of stability issues but would not hesitate to use this method in Vegas if there was the need.

I do quite a few long projects but as my end format is often 3/4" (for public access) and/or a combination of DVD and web I will always render to AVI first.

On occasion I have also found maybe a small error after rendering to AVI and then I have the GREAT advantage that I can load the rendered AVI back into the original VEG and then re-render JUST The section that I need to fix. This way I can then render the fixed project out to MPEG without having to re-do the entire render. SAVES bags of time.

I always render in Vegas.

I prefer to render each portion of a project to a separate MPEG and then assemble them in DVDA, but there are still issues with this, so I only do it on some projects. This, however is how I would prefer to do it.

Because of the issues in DVDA, and also because it is sometimes easier, I just load everything up on the timeline and let 'er rip (I mean, render). I have done projects of slightly over two hour this way.

For VHS captures, the workflow is considerably more complicated. I place everything on the timeline, cut, color correct, etc. I then frameserve, using Satish's frameserver. I open this frameserve file in an AVISynth script which then processes the video (chroma and noise cleaning, sometimes spot removal and other things. I then open this in the Mainconcept external encoder, and encode my MPEG file there. This is one linear process, done in one step, at one time:

AVI file -> Vegas -> Framserver -> AVISynth scrip & plugins -> MainConcept encoder.

If I didn't have the external encoder, I would fire up a second instance of Vegas, load the AVISynth script into Vegas via Wax, and then do the MPEG encode from there.

Of course, if you could load AVISynth plugins directly into Vegas, life would be MUCH simpler, and the things that Vegas could do would rise exponentially.

I render to AVI first and then use Procoder to convert to MPEG. I did try frameserving once, but it was quite slow and gave me some problems with the audio changing pitch (can't remember the details - I didn't persevere with this). I find even with this intermediate render the end results are much better than using the "built-in" MC encoder.

My projects are usually around 5 minutes, so I don't mind the space occupied by the extra avi files.

Richard Hunter

Never had to do anything much beyond 20 min. I always just do a straight to AVI. like jaegersing, most of my stuff is 5min. or less.

lol...by the sound of it, I'm just about the only one that does feature length renderings. That may explain where some of my problems come from...trying to render directly to mpg2 from an 80-90 minute timeline with 17 layers.

FWIW, when you render to AVI first, and then to MPEG from there....you effectively end up with a 4:1:0 file rather than a 4:2:0 file. You lose information. Rendering to AVI first and then to MPEG is certainly FASTER, and likely will always be so.
If you want faster and keeping good, AND having an archivable copy, render to the 4:2:2 format first, then render to MPEG from that.

I hope I'm not opening up a can of worms but, how do you render to the 4:2:2 format and what does that mean. I never noticed a diffence in the video. (guess I assumed it was the same. Got to quit assuming.) I've noticed audio differences on re-renders of .avi's but always assumed (there I go again) the video was the same.

IN the Render As dialog, choose Custom. Choose the Sony YUV 4:2:2 Codec in the Video options tab. If you don't have edited video, and frankly overall, you'll see little shift/change unless you've done extensive color correction, you won't see huge differences. BUT, you should notice a difference in your MPEG encodes.

Wow, that was fast. I guess this must be for VV5. I did upgrade to VV4.0e and now Sony's name is on my software, but I don't have Sony YUV 4:2:2 listed in that drop down in the video section in the customizing settings page. (Intel 4:2:0 is the only thing that looks vaguely similar) I normally go straight to mpg2 when I render, but a few times I've had to rerender a new .avi and didn't notice the difference, but as I said, I assumed and never compared. Thanks for answering so quickly.

Steve

Yes, It's a Vegas 5 option, not a Vegas 4 option.

by the sound of it, I'm just about the only one that does feature length renderings

Well - if you ignore the fact that I am doing such renderings - then yes - maybe you are just about the only one.

But... I don't have any problems with doing such renderings - and I do have regular projects that are as complex (in terms of layering) as you have.

Wow you guys are getting confusing...why would you want to render twice? Is there a benefit?

I also do 60-90-120 minute renders directly in vegas to Mpeg2 with no problems that I know of unless it is what causes some DVD-R's not to play.

That is the ideal way to do it. But sometimes if you add multiple effects and have multiple video tracks, you're computer can crash whlle trying to go straight to mpg. That's when you have to find alternative methods to get the job done.

Spot:

Just to summarise, is this what you're recommending to get the best MPEG quality?

1/. Render to AVI on the 4:2:2 format.

2/. Render to MPEG from there?

Cheers,

Andy

I hope I didn't get dyslexic about this, but I'm pretty sure he means if you re-render a new .avi, that's when you do that. But using you're original .avi straight to mpg2 is good.