sorensen 3 compression issue

uda4i wrote on 10/2/2004, 6:30 PM

Hi,
I have a Quicktime file in Sorensen 3 compression. I need to insert another piece of video into this existing file, and that new piece is uncompressed, and then render the entire project as one file.
When I do that, the already-encoded footage is being compressed again, and quality degrades accordingly.
If I render the two files in Sorensen 3 separately, and then combine them in a new project and render as uncompressed, they become huge, which I can't afford due to project size restrictions.
However, when I combine the two files (one compressed in Sorensen 3, and the other uncompressed) in Premiere and render, Premiere only encodes the uncompressed file, while leaving the already encoded file unaffected.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Is there a setting in Vegas that I can change so that it does not encode the already encoded footage, but only encodes the uncompressed parts of a given project?
Much thanks,
Mike

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/2/2004, 6:33 PM

If it's sorenson codec, it's gonna get reencoded in Vegas no matter what, even if you're just adding uncompressed to the middle of an existing stream. I just did this to check your comment on Premiere, and Premiere Pro also reencoded the Sorenson file I threw at it. You're SURE Premiere isn't reencoding?

uda4i wrote on 10/2/2004, 7:03 PM

I am certain that Premiere isn't reincoding for two reasons.
First, the footage I have is very encoding-sensitive (the source is desktop capture with plenty of small-type letters.) After one encoding section, you can still read the words in small print; after the second one, it gets too blurry. Accordingly, after two sessions of Sorensen 3 in Vegas you can't decipher much, whereas in Premiere you can render 5 times in a row (I tried this experiment) and the image remains just as crisp as it was after the first compression session.
Secondly, Premiere spends some time on the uncompressed parts of the project which it renders, but it flies in seconds through the parts which have been compressed. For instance, it may take Premiere 5 minutes to go through a 1-minute uncompressed segment, and 5 seconds to go through a 1-minute compressed segment. You can see it from the progress bar.
I am not a fan of Premiere and I'd like to avoid using it as much as possible. Is there any way that I could combine Sorensen-encoded footage and uncompressed footage, and encode it in ANY compression format without a loss in quality in the Sorensen-encoded part in Vegas?