Smart Rendering question

HollowMan wrote on 7/1/2010, 11:09 AM

I am using VMS10, and I'm confused as to how to get smart rendering to work. My source video is all in AVCHD format from a new Sony Camcorder. I'm rendering my projects to AVCHD as well, picking the target with the "=" sign in the pulldown, and keeping (I think) all the parameters the same. Rendering is taking longer than I thought it would under these conditions.

For instance - I create a new project, and only add a single, one minute long video clip to the project. No effects, no anything extra, just a single one minute AVCHD clip. Then I render that project to AVCHD. I expected this to happen almost immediately, since I thought no recompression would take place. Instead, it takes a couple of minutes to render. What am I doing wrong? In addition, is there some way to tell when recompression is taking place and when it is not?

Comments

richard-amirault wrote on 7/1/2010, 11:43 AM

I am using VMS10, and I'm confused as to how to get smart rendering to work. My source video is all in AVCHD format from a new Sony Camcorder. I'm rendering my projects to AVCHD as well, picking the target with the "=" sign in the pulldown, and keeping (I think) all the parameters the same. Rendering is taking longer than I thought it would under these conditions.

The outputs with the equal sign are those that match your file, but to get smart rendering EVERYTHING needs to be the same as the original. If you change or add one thing then Vegas has to re-render. Or, if your output settings don't match the file you have imported EXACTLY. I don't do any flavor of HD so I can't help with your settings.

How do you know when smart rendering is happening? Your preview window will go black (and I think a message in the window says 'smart rendering' as well) and your frame counter will fly.

Markk655 wrote on 7/1/2010, 6:27 PM

As far as I know, there is no AVCHD smart rendering in VMS, so it will always re-render. If your 1 min. of AVCHD only takes 2 mins, that is short for full HD (must be a brand new speedy computer!)

HollowMan wrote on 7/2/2010, 7:47 AM

Thanks Mark, your reply will save me from wasting more time. I've been trying everything I could think of to try to find what wasn't matching up exactly between my input and output formats. And yes, the PC is new and fast, built primarily for this purpose.

My render times aren't that bad at present - however, the idea that I could really speed them up using smart rendering was too tempting to pass up. Oh well.

GregP wrote on 12/1/2010, 5:59 AM

Just in case anyone from Sony is listening, I still feel penalized a bit for wanting to edit AVCHD content (and even just play it some times). I'm wondering if the lack of smart rendering is due to some inherent limitation or if they just haven't gotten to it yet.

As a new user of SV10, I'm a bit frustrated that it doesn't automatically change project settings if a single media type is placed on the timeline and, by default, render it to the exact same media type.

Am I missing something?

musicvid10 wrote on 12/1/2010, 7:14 AM

The lack of AVCHD smart rendering is not some trivial decision Sony made to inconvenience Vegas customers.

The truth is, it is a daunting task to build this capability into an engine that was designed primarily for editing. Where MPEG-2 has only a 15-frame GOP to re-index, AVCHD can have 300 frames or more (including bi-predictives) in a single GOP. Sony tried it in an earlier Vegas Pro version and had to remove it for more work.

In the meantime, there are some standalone muxers that have this capability. Download the trial version of VideoReDo h264 Beta and give it a spin.