Preview window settings effect on rendered video files...

cbrillow wrote on 10/17/2021, 6:03 PM

Hello to everyone smarter than I -- this means you!

Longtime, mostly-casual/hobbyist Vegas user, recently commissioned for a project and finding himself older, but not wiser...

I'm using Vegas (recently upgraded from VP12 to Vegas 19) and DVD Architect 6 to create my 4th 'commercial' DVD. I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos to become acquainted with new features (and new problems!) in Vegas 19, and have run across some contradictory claims that leave me wondering if this newfangled internet thing is all it's cracked up to be... 😉

I've been concentrating on getting the best performance possible out of my aging system, in terms of timeline performance and render speeds. This, of course, gets into the switches and settings involved with GPU vs CPU rendering and video ram allocation, etc. While I'm not fully cognizant of the best practices in this area, I'm relieved that I can obtain reasonable performance with my relatively unsophisticated projects, and Vegas doesn't crash & burn too often.

I saw a seemingly knowledgeable user's advice on Preview Window settings and their effect on files rendered from Vegas, and I didn't 'get' the connection. The implication was that the video setting in the preview window directly affects the quality of the rendered video file. Worse, it led me to (almost) believe that I had to select one setting in the preview window -- say Draft, Half -- to get decent playback of the timeline, but then I'd have to remember to set it to something more resource-intensive -- Best, Full, for example -- to achieve superior quality when I render to a file. This doesn't make sense to me. Is there really such a relationship between the two?

I seem to remember something about this (maybe) affecting the resolution of a captured frame saved to an image file in an older version of Vegas, but is it applicable to video rendering, as well?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some authoritative light on this!

 

Comments

EricLNZ wrote on 10/17/2021, 6:33 PM

Be wary of some YouTube videos.

Unless it has changed with VP19 your preview window changes (as does your project settings) during rendering to reflect what you have chosen in your render template. So if you chose Best render quality the preview will change to Best. As for full, half etc this doesn't change in the preview window. But it doesn't matter as your render will be to the pixel dimensions of your chosen render template.

So in short there is no relationship between the quality of your preview window and your render quality. Except as explained it will change during render.

At least that's my understanding of what happens. But I'm always open to correction.

cbrillow wrote on 10/17/2021, 6:40 PM

Be wary of some YouTube videos.

Yeah, YouTube is full of good, and bad, information. Figuring out the difference between them isn't always easy.

So in short there is no relationship between the quality of your preview window and your render quality. 

That's the way it makes sense to me, too, and I appreciate your taking time to weigh-in with an opinion!

Musicvid wrote on 10/17/2021, 7:07 PM

With regard to Preview settings, the tail doesn't wag the dog.

WRT the Project Window, settings below the horizontal rule do change the output.

I've been concentrating on getting the best performance possible out of my aging system, in terms of timeline performance and render speeds. 

That would be that road that is paved with good intentions. Now, if you're interested in making the best product  for delivery, we can help with that. Production efficiency comes with practice, lots of it.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 10/17/2021, 7:08 PM

The quality setting at the top of the preview Window won't affect the quality or speed of the render... however... the quality setting in Project Settings (or an override in the render template) will affect both the render quality and speed of the render. It will also affect the quality you see in the preview window during the render. If you set "Full Resolution Rendering Quality" to Best in project settings you'll see the preview window change to Best during the render. Letting the preview window do that during the render could slow things down a tiny bit too but I don't notice much difference if I close or hide the preview window while rendering so I leave it alone and enjoy the show.

cbrillow wrote on 10/17/2021, 7:33 PM

With regard to Preview settings, the tail doesn't wag the dog.

WRT the Project Window, settings below the horizontal rule do change the output.

Nice to see you again -- I certainly recognize your ID from the old forums...

And thanks for further confirming what made sense to me -- the preview window setting affect the preview window during preview operations.

The Project and render template settings are the main determinants of render quality.

cbrillow wrote on 10/17/2021, 7:36 PM

The quality setting at the top of the preview Window won't affect the quality or speed of the render... however... the quality setting in Project Settings (or an override in the render template) will affect both the render quality and speed of the render. It will also affect the quality you see in the preview window during the render. If you set "Full Resolution Rendering Quality" to Best in project settings you'll see the preview window change to Best during the render. Letting the preview window do that during the render could slow things down a tiny bit too but I don't notice much difference if I close or hide the preview window while rendering so I leave it alone and enjoy the show.

Thanks -- yet more confirmation, with the additional information about the preview window having its settings changed during rendering, according to parameters specified in the two places where it 'really counts'!