Video Format help, please?

stockislander wrote on 3/21/2011, 10:39 PM

I'm using VMS HD Platinum 10 on Win7 64bit. I'm putting together a slide show entry for a festival of my original art work, and they specify the following:
* Quicktime
* H264
* 1024×768
I set the project up as 1024x768, but when I try to render it as a Quicktime 7 file, I don't get the H.264 video format option. I get a ton of other options, including H.261 and H.263, Sorenson, DVPal, and whatnot. Do I need to download a codec?
Thanks

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 3/21/2011, 11:46 PM

For h.264 you should use MainConcept AVC mpeg4 format, not quicktime. It will create MP4 h.264/AVC files. Quicktime will play MP4 fine, and it's in fact more compatible than MOV/h.264.

musicvid10 wrote on 3/22/2011, 12:02 AM

You can take an h264 MP4 file and rename it to the MOV extension. Although the wrappers are not exactly identical, the differences are so slight that your client will not notice under normal circumstances.

The QT7 lib available in Vegas will not render h264 in a MOV wrapper. Quicktime Pro will.

[EDIT] Although h264 is a great general purpose codec for compression and motion, it is not as good as one of the visually lossless 4:2:2 codecs for preserving exact colors and edges in graphic artwork. Pay particular attention to getting good light and accurate WB on your source footage. Keep shooting levels in a 16-235 space or they may likely get clipped during playback.

stockislander wrote on 3/22/2011, 5:45 PM

Thanks for your answers! Sneaky trick to change the extension... beats paying 30 bucks for something I'd only use once, in all probability.