MainConcept AVC/AAC vs. Sony AVC/MVC

Rich Parry wrote on 5/12/2012, 6:41 PM

VP offers two HD codecs, Main Concept and Sony. Is there a reason to use one over the other? I render my projects using MainConcept codec, but wonder if I am missing something.

In case it matters, my stuff is strickly amateur and goes on Vimeo only.

thanks in advance,
Rich

Comments

Marco. wrote on 5/13/2012, 2:43 AM

There are several differences in what both versions offer. Only Sony AVC offers AVCHD render and Blu-ray compliant output. Only Mainconcept AVC offers bit rates above 28Mbit/s, fast-start downloads and resolution above HD (Mainconcept AVC up to 4k).

Meanwhile I use Sony AVC only if I need output for Blu-rays (actually never need AVCHD output) and Mainconcept for any other H.264 output.

PeterDuke wrote on 5/13/2012, 3:25 AM

I smart render AVCHD files in Vegas 9c using the Sony coder. The Main Concept coder doesn't smart render them.

amendegw wrote on 5/13/2012, 4:24 AM

I did some testing a while back - MainConcept vs Sony vs HandBrake. Results are here: Low Bitrate Testing

HandBrake was the hands down winner followed by MainConcept followed by Sony.

At higher bitrates (eg. 10Mbps or more), I couldn't see much difference.

YMMV,
...Jerry

JohnnyRoy wrote on 5/13/2012, 8:39 AM

It should also be pointed out that the Internet templates were moved from Sony AVC to MainConcept AVC in Vegas Pro 11.0 suggesting that the Sony one is best for Blu-ray and MainConcept is best for Internet.

In Vegas Pro 11.0 the ManConcept AVC encoder is now GPU accelerated (previously only the Sony AVC encoder used the GPU). I also noticed that the MainConcept AVC GPU acceleration is significantly faster than Sony AVC so I switched from using Sony AVC to MainConcpet AVC in Vegas Pro 11.0 for rendering Internet videos (i.e., YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)

~jr

Tom Pauncz wrote on 5/13/2012, 9:36 AM

Jerry,
I am a little confused.

Looked at the testing and the three buttons all appear to show the same video - at least by the text descriptions at the beginning of each...

Tom

amendegw wrote on 5/13/2012, 2:12 PM

"I am a little confused. Looked at the testing and the three buttons all appear to show the same video - at least by the text descriptions at the beginning of each..."Tom, I understand the confusion. I used the exact Vegas Project originally created by musicvid for this project. All three videos have "HandBrake" titles (which understandably creates the confusion). Go by the named buttons - I think you will see the HandBrake has the best render, followed by MainConcept followed by Sony.

...Jerry

Tom Pauncz wrote on 5/13/2012, 4:02 PM

Thx Jerry ..
Will take another look...
Tom