Rendering MPEG-2 Files w/o Degradation

SpecialK wrote on 8/19/2007, 8:14 AM
Hi All,

Can I get Vegas to perform straight copies of MPEG-2 source files into a target file without stopping to actually render any of the content?

In this case I would have a couple of MPG files in NTSC DVD format to stitch together, and wanted the output file format to exactly match the input files. In this case, other NLE's such as VideoStudio 9 will perform copies of the video/audio without rendering, speeding up the file creation process considerably. You can even specifiy that the output format is to match the first clip of the source file and everything gets copied in - the video and all audio tracks with perfect clarity. In this case Vegas seems to always plod along at it's own pace regardless of the settings so I suspect it always peformes a full decomress/render/recompress operation regardless of source/target formats.

The reason I ask is that multi-generational rendering of compressed MPEG-2 material in Vegas 7 always causes noticable degradation and audio volume reduction, however if the the above conditions are met no re-rendering is performed by VideoStudio and the resultant MPG contains clear copies of the original file content.

TIA, Kevin

Comments

rs170a wrote on 8/19/2007, 8:33 AM
As it currently stands, Vegas still re-renders an MPEG file :-(
You'll have to stick with VideoStudio 9, Womble or VideoReDo if you want to avoid this.
Maybe Vegas 8 will have this feature but we'll have to wait until next month to find out.

Mike
blink3times wrote on 8/19/2007, 9:14 AM
Video studio, Avid liquid, Pinnacle studio, womble, video redo... and more all have some sort of mpeg smart render system. Vegas is now one on the minority side that does not include a smart render system. Smart render in mpeg is becoming a big issue now especially because hi def can be smart rendered to hi def disk and played back with almost no loss at all.

It's extremely unfortunate that vegas does not have mpeg smart render because it is a great program in all other respects. I think that this has a good chance of hurting Vegas deeply with the hi def cams hitting the store shelves at such low prices, and more and more questions of this nature are beginning to surface. I HOPE Sony is seeing this and doing something about it!!