How render 720p 29fps source file to Blu Ray?

ShaneJ wrote on 5/27/2014, 5:38 PM
I'm very new to burning Blu Rays, and after over ten years of authoring DVDs on a regular basis, I see that Blu Rays are quite different. I've successfully burned Blu Rays from very compatible source footage from my JVC GZ-HD7 that are already at 1080i. Sony Vegas has templates and settings (that I usually further tweak) that best accommodate the render without having DVDA requiring any recompression.

Okay, here is where my question lies. I have footage from a Sony digital camera (can't remember the model number because I don't have it anymore). I shot over an hour worth of footage from my cousin's wedding that I have edited to a finished project and would like to burn them to a Blu Ray to give my cousin. I've already rendered a DVD version so that there is a DVD option, but want to do a Blu Ray version as well since the source footage is 720p.

Back to my question. Which render specs or template settings should I use that would best render from source footage with 720p and 29fps? The problems I'm running into are the fact that none of the template or settings have anything at the same specs as what the source footage is. The video files from this camera are 720p with a resolution of 1280 x 720, progressive. The frame rate is 29 fps. I've tried several renders, but DVDA always wants to recompress.

The only available settings from any of the Blu Ray templates in Sony Vegas Pro 13 I can see possibly using, is rendering it with 59fps using the AVC format. There is no 29fps option that DVDA would take. Seems I can only use 24fps, 50fps, or 59fps.

Here is a link to an example file. It's 19 seconds, long enough to get the specs. https://www.dropbox.com/s/3p4e8s4se8jvlec/IMG_201210200154.MP4

Does anyone have any suggestions for which render settings for Blu Ray would be best to use in Sony Vegas when I render out all this footage to a finished project to import into DVDA? I don't want to be prompted to recompress the video in DVDA when it could be done in Vegas like it should be.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

John_Cline wrote on 5/27/2014, 6:13 PM
Just render it as 1280x720-60p (59.94) and each frame of the 30p video will just be duplicated, should work fine, upon playback, the video will still have the 30fps cadence. I don't think it will make any difference but you might want to disable resampling just to be certain.
ShaneJ wrote on 5/27/2014, 6:33 PM
Thank you, John. I was wondering if I should use the 60p or not. Also, I always disable resample when rendering from source files that are already from a compressed codec just to make sure there are no glitches. I only leave smart resample enabled when rendering SD media from a DV AVI source.

Should I use the Sony AVC Blu Ray templates? Seems they only want to render as interlaced and not progressive. When I try to render one of the Blu Ray MP2 template options with a 60p framerate, I get an error. Which exact format would be best in my case?
john_dennis wrote on 5/27/2014, 6:40 PM
In this thread is a render template all configured for what your trying to do. I've made hundreds of 720-59.94p Blu-rays. It works.

If you search "1280x720", Search By Date = Any Date and "john_dennis" you'll find waaaaaaay more than you ever wanted to know about this subject.
videoITguy wrote on 5/27/2014, 7:19 PM
double post made-
Subject: RE: Rending 720p 29fps source file to Blu Ray?
Reply by: videoITguy
Date: 5/27/2014 5:15:53 PM

You can render out to any legit Blu-ray spec. Don't fret over the recompress msg.

ShaneJ wrote on 5/27/2014, 7:50 PM
Hi VideoITguy. Thank you for your response. I don't like the recompress message in DVDA because the final renders should be finished in Sony Vegas where I render out my projects. Having DVDA render again is redundant and not necessary if it can be done right the first time in Vegas. And save time, too. The issue is finding the right rendering specs in Vegas that DVDA will take without prompting to recompress. I know it can be done as John Cline and John Dennis is describing above. I will address both Johns in a moment in another post.

As for the "any legit Blu-ray spec", the issue with that is I want to use a spec that best matches the original source without changing the field order or resolution. It looks like I can do that, but will have to use a higher or lower framerate, because no Blu Ray specs use 30fps. I think John Cline and John Dennis above have the right idea.
ShaneJ wrote on 5/27/2014, 7:52 PM
Thank you, John Cline. I was thinking of those specs myself, but wanted to ask here to make sure. Looks like John Dennis also has the same idea and another thread to back it up with further information. Will Sony AVC codec be fine? It looks like that's what John Dennis is doing.
ShaneJ wrote on 5/27/2014, 7:56 PM
Thank you very much, John Dennis. I looked over that thread and it looks very helpful. I was thinking of those specs, but wanted to make sure doubling the framerate is fine. I don't mind doing that so long as I can preserve the field order of progressive without interlacing the final project (since the source is progressive) and also preserving the scale and resolution of 1280x720 without upscaling. I will read over that linked thread again and maybe do that search you suggested for more information before I render my project again.

Whatever the case may be, I will report my results here.

Thanks again for your help. It is greatly appreciated.
John_Cline wrote on 5/27/2014, 8:57 PM
Technically, there is no field order in progressive video. Also, 1280x720-60p is a completely legal Blu-ray spec and is also one of the formats for broadcast television. You can use either AVC or MPEG2 for your Blu-ray encoding, at high bit rates, like 25mbps or higher, will look fine and will encode MUCH faster than AVC.
Laurence wrote on 5/27/2014, 10:04 PM
My recent experience with the "Awesomefilmerdude" made me realize that just doubling the frames from 30 to 60p isn't the best approach. Calculating the missing frames with motion estimation can look a heck of a lot better:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp9lzdch4mhw4yf/MVI_0003.MOV
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vgdhop1h9m4c87/MVI_0006.MOV

The links are 60i but they looked just as good at 60p, though you really need to download and install the free Sony XDcam player to be able to see it properly:

https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-software-model-PDZVX10.aspx

Strangely, I had to slow it down to 1/4 speed using ReSpeedr, then speed it back up to regular speed to get decent looking results. You would think that slowing it down to half speed would be all that you would need to generate the missing temporal frames. Theoretically that is the case, but it looked terrible. It makes no sense to have to generate twice as many frames then drop half them, but for some reason that I don't understand, doing exactly that looked better.