I'm looking for some sort of primer/explanation of relative merits and demerits of the various output ("Make Movie") formats in Vegas 10. I've been experimenting, and there's a lot that isn't clear to me.
What stands out so far is that I can generate either a fairly low quality wmv or mp4, or extremely high quality, huge mpeg files. There seems to be no in-between setting, one that would give me medium quality avi or mpg file under 1.5 GB for an hour of footage.
In particular, the only really usable format seems to be mp4. If I try avi, I either get low quality image with a "squished" look (even when using avi - PAL DV Widescreen profile), or otherwise I get incredibly huge avi files (1 GB per 10 seconds of HD video) that no player I've tried can play (KMPlayer, which can handle pretty much everything, Zoom Player, MPC, VideoLAN, I've tried a bunch). Is there a way to get usable, medium quality AVI files in 16:9?
All the "Sony AVC" profiles seem likewise unusable. No player I've tried seems to support what Vegas outputs, or only the video stream is played, with either silence or an awesome loud buzz in the right speaker for audio. The quality of Quicktime and RealMedia formats is too low to bother, so not much else is left.
Basically I'm looking for two reliable output formats:
1) medium quality avi or mpeg format that yields no more than 1.5 GB per hour (better still, under 1 GB)
2) high quality HD avi, mp4 or mpeg that I could keep around as master and convert from when needed. My HD camera produces very large mts files (2 GB or more for 15 minutes of footage), which I cannot keep around forever. I've tried some high-quality mpeg profiles, but they only store video, and I've found that forcing the "Include audio" option makes some files unplayable (e.g. the video stutters in the player, etc.).
What are my best practical options for (1) and (2)? And could anyone provide some hints as to why I could be having no luck with avi and avs? Thanks a lot in advance!
What stands out so far is that I can generate either a fairly low quality wmv or mp4, or extremely high quality, huge mpeg files. There seems to be no in-between setting, one that would give me medium quality avi or mpg file under 1.5 GB for an hour of footage.
In particular, the only really usable format seems to be mp4. If I try avi, I either get low quality image with a "squished" look (even when using avi - PAL DV Widescreen profile), or otherwise I get incredibly huge avi files (1 GB per 10 seconds of HD video) that no player I've tried can play (KMPlayer, which can handle pretty much everything, Zoom Player, MPC, VideoLAN, I've tried a bunch). Is there a way to get usable, medium quality AVI files in 16:9?
All the "Sony AVC" profiles seem likewise unusable. No player I've tried seems to support what Vegas outputs, or only the video stream is played, with either silence or an awesome loud buzz in the right speaker for audio. The quality of Quicktime and RealMedia formats is too low to bother, so not much else is left.
Basically I'm looking for two reliable output formats:
1) medium quality avi or mpeg format that yields no more than 1.5 GB per hour (better still, under 1 GB)
2) high quality HD avi, mp4 or mpeg that I could keep around as master and convert from when needed. My HD camera produces very large mts files (2 GB or more for 15 minutes of footage), which I cannot keep around forever. I've tried some high-quality mpeg profiles, but they only store video, and I've found that forcing the "Include audio" option makes some files unplayable (e.g. the video stutters in the player, etc.).
What are my best practical options for (1) and (2)? And could anyone provide some hints as to why I could be having no luck with avi and avs? Thanks a lot in advance!