Motion JPEG format

EternalTyro wrote on 7/25/2013, 10:36 PM

I'm a late adopter, finally going to try editing hd footage. I'm looking at a camera that uses AVI (Motion JPEG) for recording 720P. Vegas Movie Studio 10 includes AVI in 1080 but not 720. There are plenty of other supported 720P formats, can I render in one of those without the transcoding ruining the video? Or should I look for a camera with a supported format. The camera I'm considering is inexpensive, that's why I'm kinda sold on it. As always, thanks to the gurus here!

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 7/25/2013, 11:37 PM

Motion JPEG is not always the same.
There are actually two questions and answers:

1. Vegas supports all sizes for AVI, if there is not a template that fits your resolution, type in the numbers or use "Match Media Settings"

2. If Vegas will not open your MJPEG files natively, your will need to download and install the Mainconcept MJPEG trial codec (does not expire).

Usually, that's all you need to get it going. BTW, the reason many "inexpensive" cameras use MJPEG or other older or oddball codecs is that they don't have to pay for them.
;?)

EternalTyro wrote on 7/25/2013, 11:43 PM

Wow, that was quick! Thanks much!!

Ivan Lietaert wrote on 7/26/2013, 12:54 AM

The good thing about Motion Jpeg is that you'll get fluent playback in Vegas. The 'bad' thing is that it takes more space on the memory card and hard drive, because there is less compression.
Good luck with your project!

musicvid10 wrote on 7/26/2013, 7:56 AM

Good observations, Ivan.
MJPEG can produce high quality at very high bitrates, and as an RGB codec, does not run into chroma subsampling errors.