Three Concept Questions

Delanoso wrote on 6/15/2011, 7:24 AM

I feel like I'm asking questions about advanced astrophysics with a 6th grade science education. So let’s start with specs:

I'm running VMS HD9 on:

Win7
iCore 2 Duo 2.2GHz,
4Gig Ram
512MB NVIDIA GeForce G 105M

Shooting video on: Canon 5D Mark II
1920X1080p, 29.97fps (NTSC)
H.264 in a MOV file

I’m a reasonably accomplished photographer (Delanoso.com) but this is the first time I’ve really attempted to do anything with the fantastic video capabilities I got with my camera. Unfortunately, nothing seems to work and I’m really too clueless to know why. I can follow directions but I want to understand what my errors are instead. Unless you’re ok giving me step by step directions for every possible situation…

1—What’s a reasonable starting point for workflow? Originally, I used the Explorer tab to bring all my clips into VMS, trimming them and then adding them to the timeline to edit and build a total of about 15 minutes. Rendering that proved difficult at best so I’ve moved to selecting sections to collect and edit and then rendering those to an Avid DNxHD .mov file (following Eugenia’s blog post). Then I’d collect all the pieces into a new timeline make a few more adjustments and render to a Main Concept compression. Does it matter? Am I missing a step all together?

2—I think I’ve solved most of my memory issues with the >2G fix but My render times are *very* long. For 15 minutes of video, It’s be consistently over 2 hours. While lurking around the forums her, the longest times I’ve seen for successful renders is about 2x the video (so 30 minutes +/- in this case). Am I off here?

3—In addition to the render times, I’ve had a mixture of failures on the rendered files outside of crashes and application errors. When I have been able to get a file rendered it’s been choppy at best and displayed a great deal of image distortion in terms of contrast and pixelization. The last couple files have rendered the audio correctly but the video renders in slow motion and lags the audio even though I’ve made efforts to match video specs across the board—project settings to source, render settings to project settings. I’ve gone back and verified that everything says 29fpswhere it can but I’m obviously missing something.

Ideas?

Thanks for the help!

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 6/15/2011, 7:38 AM

One of the keys to success with this program is properly setting up your project for your specific video format.

My free 8-part tutorial series may help get you up and running with the basics.

You can view these tuts by clicking on the links on the left side of this page
http://muvipix.com/vms10.php

knockatoone wrote on 6/15/2011, 9:42 AM

I have not looked at the tutorials that Steve has suggested. But I have not had very good luck using .mov files in VMS10 Plat. Best advise I have gotten is to invest $30 in "Quick Time Pro" for windows ( a down load) and convert your ".mov" files to something more friendly to VNS - I have a Sony camcorder that puts out AVCHD fiiles that have not been a problem in VNS but Steve has others he preferrs. I do have a Cool pix that out puts the .mov files that I convert to AVCHD for VNS.
You sound like you are doing a lot of work with your files - If fed the proper input formats VMS will render out a 20 min HD video in about 45 to 60 mins _PC inerds do matter. I am bigger believer in the the KISS principle and so I bring in my video files either by direct copy from a memory card or by USB to my hard drive - Then using the explorer tab in VNS I can drag to the time line and edit there -be sure to save often and it is wise ro set up multiple files to save multiple copies of the VMS Program files ( an a, b & c file name) for just in case back ups (these are the rather small '.vf" files).
Since you are a photographer trying to learn video editing I would suggest a visit to Amazon and the purchase of either or both of Steves books on VMS and DVDArch. This site is great for asking specific questions about specific problems and getting really good info - but would suggest the guides I have just mentioned -they make great ref' books as you learn you way ... K

Delanoso wrote on 6/15/2011, 10:47 AM

Steve, I'll definitely check out your tutorials--that the sort of thing I need. Even if I don't follow everything in them it'll help me figure out where I should be headed.

For the sake of reference, I've started out my latest attempts by matching the project settings to the source video formats because I've seen that suggestion over an over in these forums.

What makes MOV a bad format for VMS? I prefer not to convert files, hoping to preserve as much of the data for image/sound quality as possible.

Eugenia wrote on 6/15/2011, 11:08 AM

1. If you install the trial of VMS11 in parallel, you will be able to playback the MOV camera files without re-encoding to DNxHD. You just drag and drop, set the right project properties, and you can edit as-is in a modern PC.

2. What you see is correct in terms of rendering -- especially if you used plugins. See, your PC is not particularly fast. On my Quad Core 2.4 Ghz, it would take 1.5 hours to render a 4 minute video that had plugins in it (music video), even if the source was HDV (which is relatively easy to decode). So what you see is normal.

3. Did you use my tutorial on how to export with MainConcept? Maybe you can grab a shot on an exported frame that shows the problem? As for decoding speed, Quicktime won't be able to playback the exporting Main concept 1080p files in full speed on a PC like yours. Since you're using an nVidia card, I'd suggest you try the trial version of CoreAVC decoder, and configure MPlayerC to use it. Only then you will get acceleration to decode heavy h.264 streams like the ones generated by MainConcept.

Delanoso wrote on 6/15/2011, 5:17 PM

Thanks for the response, Eugenia. That sounds more like what I sort of expected to hear--I'm asking more than I thought I was. So to respond to your comments:

1--I'm not having playback issues in VMS, only in the rendered files in quicktime or windows media. I can also watch the raw individual clips in Quicktime with any problem so it seems like the issue is in the export process.

2--Fair enough. If it take that long it takes that long. At least I know what to expect.

3--I directly followed your tutorial on using the DNxHD codec and I'm pretty sure I read your tutorial on exporting to MainConcept but I'll be honest and say that I've read a lot of things that seem to conflict or vary and I'm not sure if I haven't blended some of those. The thing that's odd is that the video and audio don't track together so I'm certain I've got something wrong--I just don't know where.

Let me also say that I don't necessarily need to use any particular compression or format. I just want a decent video that I can let friends and family watch. If there's an easier way to accomplish that with the source video I have then I'm all ears.

Eugenia wrote on 6/15/2011, 5:44 PM

Try any of the two
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=766645&Replies=0
http://eugenia.queru.com/2007/11/09/exporting-with-vegas-for-vimeo-hd/