Reducing MPEG2 Filesize

daharvey wrote on 1/29/2004, 6:34 PM

When rendering my Vegas Project using MainConcept MPEG-2, how do I decrease the filesize of the newly created MPEG-2 file. I understand the quality will be lowered. Under Custom Templates I've tried all Video Rendering Qualities (1st tab) and lowered the Video Quality (2nd tab). The filesize does not change.

Comments

Former user wrote on 1/29/2004, 6:36 PM

Bitrate is one major effect on file sizes.

Dave T2

Chienworks wrote on 1/30/2004, 4:43 AM

The first tab you refer to specifies how well Vegas resizes or otherwise computes transformations of the images while rendering. If you're using more or less straight video as your source material then this setting makes very little difference to the output quality, but will could waste a lot of time while rendering if you go to best. It has nothing to do with the file size.

The second tab you refer to specifies how well Vegas converts the video frames into MPEG. The higher the quality setting, the more time Vegas will spend "getting it right". Most of us always slide this all the way over to high to get the best looking MPEG renders possible (this also applies to WMV) and suffer the longer rendering times to get it. It also has nothing to do with the file size. Setting this to low will result in quickly getting a horrid looking file that is still just as large as you would get by setting it to high.

However ...

The bitrate you use will almost entirely determine the output size. A lower bitrate will result in a smaller file, almost in direct 1:1 proportion to the bitrate used. Of course, the more bits you allow Vegas to use, the better your output file will potentially be. Setting this value too small will usually result in a poor render no matter what settings you pick for the first two tabs. If you're shooting for a lower bitrate to get smaller files then it is more important than ever to make sure you set the quality slider as high as possible to compensate.