Rendering Settings in VMS10 Platinum

AlanADale wrote on 4/21/2011, 2:47 AM
I recently edited and produced a short (8mins) 1080p @ 30fps HD video using VMS10 Platinum. The original footage was shot using the Drift HD170 Stealth POV camera - http://driftinnovation.com/hd170-stealth-camera/

Upon saving the now edited video to my PC I followed the advice given by Eugenia here http://eugenia.queru.com/2007/11/09/exporting-with-vegas-for-vimeo-hd/ and in particular paragraph 4 noting the settings for Main Concept.

However, the resultant video in MP4 format when played back in various viewers e.g. Windows Player, Picasa3 and VLC looked absolutely terrible, certainly not HD quality and essentially made the file unusable. I ditched this file and repeated the save to PC option but this time exported out in the wmv format. Lo and behold, the resultant video was everything that I expected it to be. The completed video which I uploaded to YouTube in wmv format can be seen here

I had expected the MP4 format to be much better although I can't really say why........perhaps something that I read somewhere. So as this obviously wasn't the case in this instance I guess that I must be doing something wrong although what is evading me. Does anyone have an explanation for this?

At the end of the day, I am aiming to save the 1080p file to my PC retaining as much of the original quality as possible and also upload selected videos to YouTube. Any advice gratefully received - thanks.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 4/21/2011, 8:39 AM
What makes more difference than almost anything else, and something you haven't mentioned at all, is bitrate. The scummiest codec in the world with a high bitrate looks worlds better than the best codec with a low bitrate.

Given the same bitrates, MP4 usually looks much better than WMV.
Eugenia wrote on 4/21/2011, 9:42 AM
The MP4 format IS better. You simply didn't follow the tutorial properly, so probably your bitrate was off by a few million bits.
AlanADale wrote on 4/21/2011, 10:25 AM
OK, thanks for the replies. Unfortunately having produced the finished video I have now deleted the originally captured files so am unable to repeat the exercise. Yes I know, but these files consume many many GB's of hard drive and as the finished video isn't critical so to speak I usually delete them.

However, over the next few days (time permitting) I shall shoot a bit more video and repeat the exercise paying very careful attention to the bit rate that you have both mentioned although I thought I'd also done this last time.

Just to clarify - when I said the MP4 produced video was unusable it was for the following reasons. Almost all of the video was shot with the camera mounted on my motorcycle helmet whilst riding in a forest environment. When the video was rendered in the MP4 format the leaves of the trees lost all definition and appeared as simply a big blodge almost as though one had cloned an image badly in say Photoshop. The wmv rendered file was much much better. Again, thanks for your replies.
Eugenia wrote on 4/21/2011, 10:38 AM
Yeah, what you're describing is lack of bitrate. You probably didn't enter the right amounts on the MainConcept dialog. It has TWO fields for bitrate, and you must first enter the max value, and then the average -- otherwise it reverts back to the lower value. I'm sure something like that happened.
musicvid10 wrote on 4/21/2011, 11:06 AM
You can get a 1TB external drive on sale for $50-60 these days.
There is no reason to ever trash your captured video (unless it's involved in a divorce).
AlanADale wrote on 4/21/2011, 12:59 PM
Thanks again Eugenia, I've taken note of what you say.

@ musicvid. Yes I fully understand what you are saying. As my main interest, other than work that is LOL, is photography I have external hard drives a-plenty for backup purposes etc. In the example video mentioned in my first post, the total video captured was 32GB which ended up as a finished (edited) product of 8mins in duration and 1.5GB in size. If I retained all original video clips I'd end up with a room full of EHD's after a year or two. That said, I do keep select clips that I feel might be worth revisiting again some time in the future or that might be suited for insertion into other projects.