Matching Project Properties to Output Specs

JeffD wrote on 2/2/2007, 8:32 AM
Are there any significant advantages to modifying the PROJECT PROPERTIES values to match the intended output specs? (Sony VMS Platinum ) I'm thinking not...

Here's the background...

I'm creating a number of short (3-5 minute) movies from old home-video footage and putting them up on my personal Web site (mostly as 320x240 WMVs) for family members to have a chuckle over.

My plan is to ALSO compile them on DVD(s) once I create enough of them -- or if I want to share any with folks who can't view WMVs on the Web.

In all cases, each project uses the "NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps)" template, and then I "render as" as appropriate.

TIA

Comments

ScottW wrote on 2/2/2007, 4:02 PM
IMO, in general i'd just leave the project properties alone. I frequently take a project I've done for TV and render it as WMV 320x240. Now, the only time I don't do this is if I'm doing something with track motion on multiple tracks - since WMV uses square pixels, it throws the final product off. In this case I render the project out as AVI DV, then bring the AVI in to (in this case Vegas, but it's the same for VMS) and then render to WMV.

--Scott
Chienworks wrote on 2/2/2007, 7:05 PM
Vegas always uses the output properties when rendering, ignoring the project properties while doing so. Should you match the project to the output? Well, as my physics professor always used to say, it's good "for completeness sake." It's not required in order to have Vegas render the file properly, but matching the project to the output can help you make a few critical editing decisions.

For one example, 320x240 is just slightly narrower than DV. If you project properties are set to DV and you import a still photo, then render to 320x240, the image will be squished slightly thinner. If you had started with 320x240 for the project properties to begin with then you will see the photo on the timeline the same way it will end up in the finished render.
JeffD wrote on 2/2/2007, 8:59 PM
Thanks to both of you. Good points about pixel and aspect ratio issues.