resize in Vegas or Photoshop

burgmanguy wrote on 5/26/2009, 12:42 PM

The project settings are 1280x720 and the source image is significantly larger but same aspect ratio.

Sony Vegas scales the source image to 1280x720 in the timeline.

Would the ultimate quality of the video be better if I resized in Photoshop to 1280 x720 and used the "resized" source image.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 5/26/2009, 12:55 PM

I ran some tests on this a while back, and found that they are close enough to being the same that it makes no difference.

In a couple of instances, Vegas-resized images actually were subjectively a bit sharper than Photoshop. Of course, I don't recommend upsizing images that are smaller than the project dimensions.

On some NLEs (P*******) you needed to size the photos to precisely the output dimensions or they would look like caca.

One note of caution: If you are doing several large images in a Vegas project, you will end up using a lot of memory. This may slow things down. Batch-resizing them to say, 2560x1440 (assuming square pixels) and saving as .png will save you some space (and memory), while still giving you some room to crop and zoom in if you want to. I find Irfanview especially useful for this purpose.

Laurence wrote on 5/26/2009, 2:04 PM

Another option is to resize the video in VirtualDub or AVISynth with a customizable resize filter chain. I found the results of resizing video this way to be about the same though as just using Vegas's resize. Vegas does a surprisingly good job at resizing video. Just remember to check or decheck the "select deinterlace method tab" according to whether your starting footage is interlaced or deinterlaced. The correct setting is "select deinterlace method" checked for interlaced footage and unchecked for progressive. Also remember to check "best" for the the "full resolution rendering quality" choice. This selection makes Vegas use it's best resizing algorithm and while it makes little difference in output quality when there is no resize, makes a huge difference when there is.

musicvid10 wrote on 5/26/2009, 7:08 PM

"Also remember to check "best" for the the "full resolution rendering quality" choice."

Thanks, I always forget to mention this because my default is always set to "Best."
I figure the extra rendering time for projects that really don't need it is more than made up for by not having to redo one long render when it was needed . . .

burgmanguy wrote on 5/27/2009, 9:01 AM

Thanks for the good advice!