Really long rendering times with wmv codec

Artstenn wrote on 7/17/2008, 9:10 AM
Right now I'm using Vegas 7.0 to rip content from DVD's and I need to render them to wmv format for the smaller file sizes. Whereas I can render a two hour video ripped from a DVD to mpeg-2 faster than real time, when I use the wmv codec in Vegas it takes 8-9 hours! I'm using an AMD 64 X2 dual processor computer and rendering seems to be fast for all codecs EXCEPT wmv 9. I've tried using divx instead with lousy results. Note the wmv files I need to render are not for DVD, but rather to play right out of Windows. Any suggestions on reducing rendering times for WMV9?

Thanks!

Comments

jrazz wrote on 7/17/2008, 11:15 AM
What wmv9 settings are you using?

Also I would be curious as to what settings you use for DivX as I get exceptional results when I encode to DivX and the encode goes faster and looks far better than wmv at the same bitrate.

j razz
Artstenn wrote on 7/17/2008, 1:02 PM
I'm using the default wmv 9 settings. I think it's set to high quality VBR with the slider set to 90%. But I've tried other settings with the same results. With divx I was using its default settings too and it looked horrible so I increased the quality over performance slider and it was better but still pixelated in some areas. What settings do you use in divx?
jrazz wrote on 7/18/2008, 8:14 AM
I use Dr. DivX for my encoding (it is a free download) and gives you more settings to work with. Take a look at it. I don't have a set setting (and I don't encode vob files- I still have all of my original footage), I have some high definition files that turned out great and I have some sd files that turned out great.

If your source files are constant bitrate, you may want to try constant as opposed to variable as variable can take longer and if you have 2 pass selected it will definitely take longer.

j razz
goodtimej wrote on 7/19/2008, 1:44 PM
WMV is a HOG!!! I have all kinds of troubles with it straight from the timeline. Usually what I do when I want to render out .wmv's is to just render out an mpg or avi and then render my wmv from there.
Artstenn wrote on 7/19/2008, 3:39 PM
Hi guys, thanks and I'll take a look at dr divx. What I have is an mpeg 2 file on the Vegas timeline. It came from some betacam sp masters that I dubbed to a standalone Sony DVD burner. So I used Vegas to rip the mpeg file from the DVD and that's what I'm trying to render out as a .wmv video. It works well if I have 8-9 hours to wait for it! I just don't get why it takes so long when I can render another mpeg file faster than real time. The reason I don't want another mpeg file is simply that the file sizes are too large. The wmv codec produces much smaller files with really good quality. So, any further comment would be appreciated!
Artstenn wrote on 7/19/2008, 6:18 PM
Okay, for now I'm trying the divx render again with different settings. I downloaded the dr. divx utility and didn't like it. Just me. Instead, here's another option ya'll might wanna try...download the free divx codec from the divx web site. It will bundle their player and some other junk but just install the codec. You have this choice during installation. Then, when you choose to render to divx from the Vegas timeline, you have some options in the new divx codec box. I'm trying a render to "better quality" but at a lower bit rate to keep the file size small. I'll let you know what happens.