Sony Vegas Pro 12 x64, Colossus TS file capture

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musicvid10 wrote on 6/27/2013, 7:34 PM
Without having actually tested yet (new client), I tend to agree with John Dennis. 60p SD is an odd bird, and as far as getting importable files using VRD, he is all over this stuff.


Ben Nash wrote on 6/27/2013, 7:52 PM
Hi MusicVid,

I just edited my response to John after having no luck importing the H264 video stream into Vegas Pro 12 x64. I'm headed back to try the MP4 output of VideoRedo now that I have the x24vfw 64 bit codecs installed.
john_dennis wrote on 6/27/2013, 11:04 PM
"[I]...but the H264 stream would not import in Vegas Pro 12 x64.[/I]"

Vegas won't open the filename.h264 file. That's why you mux the filename.h264 and the filename.wav file to something that Vegas understands with tsMuxer, filename.m2ts.

I did some more experimenting with the Advanced Profile Options in VideoReDo TV Suite and got a 720x480-59.94p file that would work in Vegas Pro 9, 10, 11and 12.

Copy these options. It's getting late for me to describe all the check boxes.

The MediaInfo for the resulting file follows:

General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : E:\Ben Nash Test Video\GirlsUndPanzer01_2MinClip_ColossusCap_Component - Test 3.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 292 MiB
Duration : 2mn 30s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 16.3 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L3.2
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=2, N=33
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 2mn 30s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 14.1 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 19.2 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 59.940 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.681
Stream size : 253 MiB (87%)
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.601
Matrix coefficients : BT.601

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Muxing mode : Blu-ray
Codec ID : 128
Duration : 2mn 30s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 27.6 MiB (9%)
Language : English

To answer your previous question:

"If I wanted to use Vegas to render a file for Blu-ray, what would be the best choice for frame rate and scan mode given those input files?"

Given the SD pixel dimensions and the 59.94 progressive frame rate, I would render out of Vegas Pro to the Sony AVC Blu-ray codec and use 1280x720-59.94p. This is a legitimate Blu-ray pixel dimension and frame rate. I'd keep the PCM audio throughout to minimize generation losses.
If it was SD material @ 60i I would just leave it 720x480-60i but because of you capture device you already have progressive video.
Ben Nash wrote on 6/28/2013, 8:11 PM
Hi John,

Actually, as I reported in my post on 06/23, Vegas Pro 12 x64 has no problem importing H264 video streams output by TSDoctor. When I do the File | Import Media operation, the file browser in Vegas includes .264 file types in the "All Project and Media Files" category. These files appear in the browser and can be selected and imported.

It's only the H264 files output by VideoRedo that won't import per my previous post. That's why I use VideoRedo Quickstream to produce another TS file instead, which TSDoctor | Demuxer then outputs as H264 video and (usually) ES audio streams.

I have to convert the ES audio stream to WAV using the freeware Audacity wave editor, but that's really the only snag with the TS Doctor output.

None of that means that your one-step conversion using VideoRedo doesn't work. I'll definitely try it.

As far as Blu-Ray file format goes, I've had some luck setting the project properties to 1920 X 1080 - 29.97i and using the Vegas option Tools | Video | Video Event Pan/Crop to expand the 720 X 480 "lettebox" into a 1920 X 1080 frame. That part of the operation works fine and doesn't look bad at all during Blu-Ray playback.

One thing we have to keep in mind here is that the video content is animation, not live action. I thnk I'm getting away with a lot of format changes that wouldn't work with live action recorded in SD. I sure can't argue with the results for animation though. I just wish there was a one-step conversion of the captured TS files into a format that Vegas could import. So far it eludes me.

Whatever, I'm off to try VideoRedo with the settings you defined in your post!

Thanks for your time,
Ben Nash
Ben Nash wrote on 7/2/2013, 10:36 PM
Hi John,

I've gotten some promising results trying the VideoRedo profile options shown in the link in your second post, along with using TSMuxer to mux an M2TS file from the H264 and WAV files output by VideoRedo.

I still have to do some additional renderings in Vegas to see if that approach buys me anything in terms of quality over the VideRedo/TS Doctor-Demuxer process I described in an earlier post. Both are two-step workflows involving two different apps and thus far seem to produce similar results. Which one might be advantageous, if either, I just don't know yet.

I also tried a variation on those VideoRedo profile options. I wasn't too comfortable with being forced to set the max bitrate to 19.2 Mbps in the "Bitrate Mode" advanced profile options because it was slightly lower than the max bitrate in the TS source file. In fact the video stream output by VideoRedo was about 1GB less in size than the source video. Of course I'm not sure how to interpret that given all the changes these apps are making but it did seem as though a lot of info was being thrown away.

So I tried the "Quality Mode" advanced profile options in VideoRedo and left the default settings for MPEG2 and H264 alone. This gave me the desired result of an H264 video stream with an average bitrate of about 22 Mbps.

However the muxed M2TS file would not import into Vegas Pro 12 x64. It wasn't an import error, but rather a failure to drag the imported M2TS file to the timeline. Nothing at all happened. The symptom was the same as what I observed when I tried to import a captured TS file and drag it to the timeline.

So it now seems that the "Bitrate Mode" in the VideoRedo Advanced Profile options, followed by a TSMUxer M2TS mux, makes it work. Next step is some rendering in Vegas, and a comparison of the end result with the other process involving VideoRedo QuickStream and TS Doctor Demuxer.

Whatever the result of the rendering, I now have another workaound that gets these problematic files to import into Vegas. I appreciate the help and thank you for the info.

One thing that you and I and MusicVid have tossed around is that MediaInfo sometimes reports information that can be a little ambiguous and/or misleading. The kind of frame rate I've been seeing and reporting herein is a good example.

I was wondering if either or both of you have been using some other media properties app that provides more useful info.

My limited resources at VideoHelp.com and CNet's Download.Com both show MediaInfo as the most popular app in this category. Are there better alternative(s) available elsewhere by any chance?

Thanks for your time,
Ben Nash
musicvid10 wrote on 7/2/2013, 10:41 PM
MediaInfo is the only one that's kept up to date, and yes, there are ambiguities and downright mistakes.
They do listen, if you'll take the time to carefully document the errors. Often, there are mistakes in the file metadata, and of course those cannot be anticipated.
GSpot hasn't been developed in over six years.
john_dennis wrote on 7/7/2013, 11:57 PM
“I wasn't too comfortable with being forced to set the max bitrate to 19.2 Mbps in the "Bitrate Mode" advanced profile options because it was slightly lower than the max bitrate in the TS source file. In fact”

I wouldn’t get too hung up on this because your capture device seems to be recording at a constant bit rate without regard to the bit rate of your analog source.

See the graph of your source file from the application Bitrate Viewer . At sample 7 there is a black screen. It’s unlikely you need 20 mbps to describe a black screen.

In this graph of the file produced by VideoReDo and tsMuxer from the settings I proposed, the bit rate at sample 7 is 604 kbps. The average bit rate for the variable bit rate file at 13,768 mbps is very likely more than the bit rate of your source. It’s unlikely your carrier allocated more than 8 mbps to a standard definition animation channel.

19.2 mbps is close to the maximum bit rate used by OTA ATSC channels in America. The quality of a broadcast at that bit rate can be quite respectable to watch. Some of us soldier on watching that stuff even as the local broadcasters skim a few mbps off the top to multicast infomercials on one of their sub-channels.

Even at 14 mbps the video is usually better than the content.