Hi Mark,
Thanks for the reply. COuld you please elaborate on Frameserve method that you are using. I am a newbie, still learning.

Thanks,

drb

Sony, like other NLE software firms using the MainConcept MPEG2 encoder, purchased the rights to use the MainConcept encoder software developers kit. Sony then used the snippets of code from the SDK to build a version of the MainConcept encoder for Vegas. The underlying MPEG2 routines are MainConcept's but the implementation of these routines is Sony's.

The v1.4.2 standalone MC encoder was released over a year ago and hasn't been updated since, MC has most likely been focusing on their h.264 encoder. Their MPEG2 code has probably been as tweaked as it's going to get for quite some time now. I'm sure that if there were any newer versions of the MC SDK, Sony has used the latest code available. Anyway, I doubt that the standalone version of the MC encoder would produce any better results than the one currently built-in to Vegas.

John

>>...I doubt that the standalone version of the MC encoder would
>>produce any better results than the one currently built-in to
Vegas...

I'm not sure about Vegas 6, but with respect to Vegas 5, the stand alone encoder was much faster and, in my opinion, looked just as good as Vegas from the timeline.

the mpeg2 encoder in vegas 5 and 6 both will use HT or SMP and is multithreaded. Fastest results (V5) are to use HT (or SMP) and render vegas on 1 cpu (virtual or real) and frame serve to second vegas doing mpeg encoding using both cpu's (virtual or real) or to a second machine (the mpeg encoder is generally much faster than the internal vegas render engine so most of the time it is just waiting for input) ..

the encoder in 6 is using newer versions of dll's and replaces the mpeg2 encoder in V5 if you install 6 ..

tests we did about a year ago with vegas 5 vs. the stand alone encoder produced slightly better looking results with vegas with DV sources. Using fairly default settings..

Frameserver.

1. Download the frameserver from www.debugmode.com.

2. Install the frameserver.

3. In Vegas, click on Render As, and choose the frameserver output option. Pick a file name and then click on OK. Choose RGB32 if you are going to the MC external encoder.

4. Once the frameserver is running, Vegas just sits there, waiting for another program to open up the "signpost" AVI file that you just created. Each frame of video is passed by Vegas to the other application via that file name (although nothing is actually saved to disk).

5. Open your external encoder and open the "signpost" AVI file and proceed just as if it were a regular AVI file. Make sure to check the RGB 16-235 box if you use the external MC encoder.

Hi again,

You need to download the debuggmode frameserver and install it. From there when you go to render from Vegas, choose "Debuggmode Frameserver" as the option in the dropdown list. This will create a "dummy" file with whatever name that you give it. I cal mine "Frameserved". Open up MC and choose your dummy file as the file to encode. Then click "Encode" on MC. That will start the frameserver. This takes your Vegas timeline and inputs it directly into the MC encoder that you have open. It is not as complicated as it sounds. Do a Google for the frameserver and I believe that there is some more help there.
Mark

debugmode had complete, almost idiot proof, instructions on how to use the frameserver. At least he did at the time I downloaded the frameserver. Look two posts above for address.