pleasantly surprised . . . i hope

s k r o o t a y p wrote on 1/20/2008, 8:09 PM
~well i just made the jump from VMS 4 to 8 plat. i had a 42 min project with numuerous overlays and bunches of effects that VMS 4 estimated would be 100 G when rendered to AVI. so i opened the same project in VMS 8 plat and rendered it to AVI and the final outcome was a wee 9 G file! i played it back in WMP and the whole thing seems fine. how can this be? how can the file be so small for being AVI? (am i overlooking something?)

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 1/20/2008, 8:14 PM
Sounds about right for miniDV AVI. 42 mins, 9 GB. You can go even smaller --without losing quality-- if you use the Cineform codec found under avi's "custom" panel.
s k r o o t a y p wrote on 1/20/2008, 8:34 PM
~is this due to the increased support up from version 4? a five minute avi render in v4 was 9 G! it's just gotten that much better?
Eugenia wrote on 1/20/2008, 8:39 PM
No, it's the same as before. It's just because in v4 you unknowingly used "uncompressed", while now you are using the "miniDV" codec. You see, "avi" is not a video codec, it's a container. Inside that avi a lot of different codecs can exist. It's just that now Vegas picks for you the DV codec and not uncompressed when you export as AVI. You can also use other codecs, like Cineform, as I said: you simply click "custom" and then you pick the codec you want on the Video tab.
s k r o o t a y p wrote on 1/20/2008, 8:57 PM
yes, i was very unknowing. lastly, is there quality difference between the "uncompressed" and "mini dv" codecs.

thanks, very helpful!
Eugenia wrote on 1/20/2008, 9:03 PM
Uncompressed has better quality, but it's not easily visibly with naked eye. You have to enlarge the canvas and look for the differences. So continue using the miniDV codec.