Will diff frame rates sync up on timeline?

MikeLV wrote on 3/28/2012, 2:41 PM
I have one older camera that shoots in standard def 60i miniDV tape only, and a new HD cam that shoots AVCHD and offers a few choices for frame rates (including 60i) If I want to use both of these cameras for a PIP setup and sync them in Vegas, is it necessary to shoot in the same framerate with both cams? The ultimate usage of these videos will be downloadable products (not DVD) to view on the computer so interlaced video really is not needed..

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 3/28/2012, 4:12 PM
It's usually best not to mix such widely different formats in the same project. It may work -- but it could also cause problems.

I'd recommend first loading the AVCHD footage into a project set up for AVCHD, then output (using Render As) to output as a DV-AVI.

You can then freely use the miniDV footage with it in a project set up for DV and your results should be excellent!
MikeLV wrote on 3/28/2012, 4:23 PM
Hi Steve, thanks for your reply. That extra step of rendering the AVCHD to DV-AVI will take time and much more hd space. What if I just shoot with both cameras in 60i format, will that work? Meaning, I'd set up the Vegas project as 1920x1080 29.97fps interlaced, drop in both video streams on the timeline and resize the standard def footage frame as needed for the PIP using the track motion feature. Any problems there?
Steve Grisetti wrote on 3/28/2012, 4:30 PM
As I've said, you're welcome to give it a try.

But the program is going to have to do the conversion anyway in order for you to use both in the same project. It's just a much cleaner process (and a lot less demanding on your system) if you do the pre-conversion yourself.
MikeLV wrote on 3/28/2012, 4:42 PM
I must be missing something, please correct me where I misunderstand: If both videos are in 60i framerate, what conversion must be done by the program? Are you saying that the file formats themselves (DV-AVI vs AVCHD) are incompatible on the Vegas timeline, even if the frame rates are the same? Thanks for helping me to understand all this!
Chienworks wrote on 3/28/2012, 4:47 PM
Vegas will handle pretty much anything you throw on the timeline in any combination. You can combine progressive, interlaced, 60fps, 30fsp, 24fps, HD, SD ... whatever, and Vegas knows what to do with it. You can edit and you'll get usable output.

However, any media that doesn't match your project settings will have to have every frame resized/resampled to match before it can be displayed in the preview window or written to the output file during rendering. You can let Vegas do that on the fly and put up with slower previews and slower rendering, or you can do it yourself before you use the files in your project to get faster previewing and rendering.
MikeLV wrote on 3/28/2012, 4:53 PM
Ahh I'm starting to understand now. Well, I have a pretty decent system so perhaps the slowdown won't be too bad; the videos aren't going to be ultra complex in terms of generated media and other effects. Thanks for all the info!