Proxies, Proxies, Proxies

Aphorism wrote on 11/22/2020, 4:23 PM

Hi All:

Still on VP15 and looking to get into VP18 after trials and tribulations with launching VP17.....there's a whole unresolved thread on this....

Long story short, I have a bunch of cameras that shoot HLG in HEVC at 72 Mbps and I'd love to use the VP18 HLG workflow and upgrade all of my production values for the simple cost of a software upgrade.

I bought VP16 a while ago, couldn't get it or the demo of VP17 to launch correctly, but was really happy when VP18 launched correctly after just one initial (maybe GFX hardware accel?) crash.

Here's the rub....

VP 15 had a Preferences->Internal menu where you could set the 'Video Proxy Renderer GUID' and 'Video Proxy Render Template GUID' to custom settings:

After some digging around for renderas.settings files and otherwise, I was able to create a slightly higher resolution (1080p) version of the XDCAM EX 720p proxy that Vegas 15 through (I believe) Vegas 17 default to:

Now Vegas 18 is missing portions of this menu:

The only instance of a reference to the GUID of the Render Template from Vegas 15 is in the registry. Adding a similar key to the Vegas 18->Metrics->Application doesn't do anything, even though all of the custom render templates and otherwise have shown up in Vegas 18 from Vegas 15:

Any ideas where to find this in VP18? It's a killer feature/workaround that saves me tons of time and makes this editor work for the 6-13 cam shoots that I use it for. I couldn't find a reference to that GUID for the Render Template or Rendered anywhere else in the registry...searched for the default GUIDs for the 720p (only the Render Template is different, of course) with no luck.

If it's deprecated/hidden, any advice for getting Vegas Pro 17 to work (check my user name for the other thread), as VP 17 supports the HEVC/HLG that I'd like to use?

All of the thanks in advance.....

Comments

Musicvid wrote on 11/22/2020, 4:52 PM

I suggest you try Happy Otter Scripts. The proxy capabilities are on a whole different level, and the addition of Magic YUV Ultimate support puts it at the head of the pack for proxies and intermediates.

Aphorism wrote on 11/22/2020, 5:52 PM

Thanks! I have downloaded and installed HOS on a few of the computers in my render farm. Two questions:

What would you suggest as an alternative to XDCAM EX 1080/24p proxies?

I need something that will show a higher resolution (for focus) but also play back smoothly (up to 13 angles) from a NAS over a 1 Gbps network with minimal CPU usage. Vegas routinely tries to buffer/pre-play all of the angles and the audio, frequently I have up to 24 audio tracks at 2.2 Mbps each plus another 12-13 angles at about 35 Mbps each leaves a bit of headroom (40%) on the network for other NAS users.

Is there a license limitation on HOS (install count)?

I'm still super interested in the guts of the proxy setup in VP18 though - it's been a really clean workflow so far, for VP15, before HLG.

wwaag wrote on 11/22/2020, 6:43 PM

@Aphorism

"What would you suggest as an alternative to XDCAM EX 1080/24p proxies?"

Unlike Vegas which limits XDCAM EX to 720p, KwikProxy in HOS enables higher resolutions, plus you can enter your own custom template in terms of the MPEG-2 bit rate you want. As an alternative, avc using Nvenc, VCE or even QSV would be reasonable. What makes KP so much faster than Vegas is the fact that all proxies are created "externally" and not from the timeline which really slows thing down. There is also ProxyAssist that is designed for use "after" your cuts editing has been completed. It creates proxies from the timeline, but can be faster in some circumstances if only small parts of footage are being used.

"Is there a license limitation on HOS (install count)?"

The current limitation is 4 machines.

Aphorism wrote on 11/22/2020, 7:09 PM

The man/mustelid(otter) himself!

Thank you! Just bought a second license a couple of minutes ago. Black Friday sale until 11/30 for anyone interested - seems like a huge value for US$60.

I'll try KP - I generally send the entire project to proxy and then do a multi-cam switch after that point.

Only one of my machines is on an Nvidia card, so I'll give VCE a shot first before rolling over to MPEG-2.

Any suggestions for MPEG-2 or VCE AVC at 35 Mbps or under for complete project proxies?

Thanks again!

wwaag wrote on 11/23/2020, 11:50 AM

"Any suggestions for MPEG-2 or VCE AVC at 35 Mbps or under for complete project proxies?"

The default MPEG-2 bitrate in KP is 18Mbps. I initially had it set at 10Mbps and there was a great deal of artifacting. You might create a custom template at 25Mbps if the default isn't of sufficient quality. VCE using a ConstantRateFactor (CRF) setting of 23 which is the general default for x264 encodes. Again, you can create your own custom templates in RenderPlus and then use those templates in KP. My suggestion is to do some initial test renders to find what settings work best for you.