This seems to be a problem with Canopus Procoder, not Vegas, but maybe someone here has advice. Procoder is expanding my ITU-R BT.601 levels (16-235) to 0-255 RGB levels and causing clipping in the process, when converting Sony YUV source avi files. It leaves levels unchanged when converting DV source avi files.
I also have CCE Basic which has a BT.601 level setting option, but my tests on my material with my bitrates show Procoder has the best image MPEG2 image quality. Using Sony YUV (4:2:2) instead of DV (4:1:1) as the intermediate file clearly gives better resolution on red objects on the final DVD, but the levels problem is killing me. I could use a virtual intermediate (frameserver) but the conversion time almost doubles (2-pass MPEG2 encoding). I'd rather not pre-compress levels in Vegas to (32-215) since that's throwing away information and causing some posterization; I shouldn't have to do that. What is the best way to fix this?
Specific example of the problem:
Viewing my HDV-intermediate project in the Vegas 6.0d timeline, the RGB Parade monitor view shows my R,G,B values range from 20..235.
I rendered this to Sony YUV .avi (720x480 widescreen), and re-imported that back to Vegas as a check. The R,G,B values range from 20..235 as expected.
I then converted the avi to MPEG2 using Canopus ProCoder Express, and as a final check I imported this MPEG file into to Vegas.
Now my R,G,B values range from 6..255 and the image is too contrasty in Vegas and in all my MPEG2 viewers as well.
I also have CCE Basic which has a BT.601 level setting option, but my tests on my material with my bitrates show Procoder has the best image MPEG2 image quality. Using Sony YUV (4:2:2) instead of DV (4:1:1) as the intermediate file clearly gives better resolution on red objects on the final DVD, but the levels problem is killing me. I could use a virtual intermediate (frameserver) but the conversion time almost doubles (2-pass MPEG2 encoding). I'd rather not pre-compress levels in Vegas to (32-215) since that's throwing away information and causing some posterization; I shouldn't have to do that. What is the best way to fix this?
Specific example of the problem:
Viewing my HDV-intermediate project in the Vegas 6.0d timeline, the RGB Parade monitor view shows my R,G,B values range from 20..235.
I rendered this to Sony YUV .avi (720x480 widescreen), and re-imported that back to Vegas as a check. The R,G,B values range from 20..235 as expected.
I then converted the avi to MPEG2 using Canopus ProCoder Express, and as a final check I imported this MPEG file into to Vegas.
Now my R,G,B values range from 6..255 and the image is too contrasty in Vegas and in all my MPEG2 viewers as well.