Questions from a beginner : recording games

Aegis Kleais wrote on 7/11/2008, 3:04 PM
Hey all. After messing with the Vegas Pro 8 demo for 5 minutes I decided to buy it. The program is more sophisticated that Elements, which is what I'm looking for, but I know I'll have a lot of questions along the way, and hope this official forum has people who can help me comprehend the setup.

Right now I capture in-game footage using FRAPS, which captures at 1440x900 (16:10) in HALF mode (so it captures video at 720x450) at 60FPS. One of the most annoying things about Elements was that I could never figure out how to change the project's "frame size" (resolution) It kept using things like "DV" and "HDV" which ended up squishing my video when rendered.

So my first question is this. How do I setup Vegas so that I can type in the resolution I want it output at? Also, can someone give me a good video bitrate/audio bitrate? I make 10 minute movies, and feel that at 720x450, I wouldn't mind the file being 10MB/minute (100MB download)

I look forward to hearing your answers and learning more about video editing.

Comments

Jim H wrote on 7/11/2008, 5:26 PM
First you want to set up your project properties so that what you edit will look like what you intend to render. I would suggest you stick with a project that conforms to one of the standard aspect ratios for video, not necessarily the screen resolution you've catured at. Go to "File" "Properties" to set up your project properites.

In your case I'd go with a 16:9 aspect HDV 720-30p (1280x720, 29.970 fps). You'll have to crop a bit off the top and/or bottom to fill the screen using the pan/crop feature "Match Output Aspect"

Then when you render your project, select any one of the 16:9 formats and you'll get what you see during editing. Select "file" "render as" set "Save as type" and select a "template" either the same as your project properties or another 16:9. You could also render to another aspect and stretch to fill (which looks like hell) or letterbox.
Chienworks wrote on 7/11/2008, 5:50 PM
Actually, if you're going for download to be played on a computer screen rather than a DVD/HD player, feel free to set the video properties to most anything you want. File / Properties. Type in the frame size, aspect ratio, and frame rate you want to use. Generally it's a good idea to keep the frame dimensions multiples of 8. If you're rendering to MPEG then your frame rate choices are somewhat limited too. Most other formats will let you pick any frame rate you want.

When rendering go into the custom screens and under video choose 'keep original' for the settings and it will copy whatever you set up in project properties.
Aegis Kleais wrote on 7/11/2008, 8:11 PM
Thank you for your feedback -

I should have explained my purpose for the videos. I use them for online presentations only. I don't ever plan to export them to DVD or for DVD player playback. All on computer - many times giving them to friends to play with their media players on their computers or converting it for upload to Youtube.

Keeping file size in mind, but wanting as much quality as possible, taking into account 720x450 as my "frame size" and 30-60FPS (the more the better, but 30 at the least), could you recommend me a codec with settings?

I've tried to find "bitrate calculators", but they are over my head at the moment. This one guy made a video that looked GORGEOUS, but when I broke it down to the file size (which was an impressive 1280x800, but for 8 minutes of footage it was a whopping 450+MB. That's just not gonna do it for me. :)
Aegis Kleais wrote on 7/12/2008, 11:29 AM
It seems I've found a nice setting:

Codec : WMV3
Name : WMP v9 (VC-1 Simple/Main)
SAR : 8:5 (720x450)
Video Kbps - 1315

Audio : WMA v2
Audio Kbps - 128

Total - 1446Kbps (10.6MB/s)

The video looks great (VBR 90) and the audio is "good enough" (many times I remove the audio track anyways.

I tell ya, the more I use Vegas and the more info I get from this forum, the more I love this tool. :) Thanks all!
Earl_J wrote on 7/12/2008, 2:44 PM
Hello Aegis,
I've been a video guy for a few years now and moved to Vegas 4.0 a little while back ... you are correct in the fact that the more you use it the more you'll enjoy it ... there are so many cool features and functions, I've still not discovered them all yet - don't think I ever will. . . all that with a shallow learning curve.

I agree; Vegas is it!

Until that time. . . Earl J.