Thank You Eugenia,
That is a very informative read and very much appreciated. I read through it all and will try a few different export settings and see were I end up.
Just wanted to make sure that it is possible to change project settings after the project has been completed and rendered a few times. I did re-upload to youtube as an mp4 and it really doesn't seem to have changed much. The videos were shot as .mov files and ran through Cineform Neoscene. Still seem a bit orange on youtube compared to VMS preview.

"Still seem a bit orange on youtube compared to VMS preview."

These are two very different statements.

Care to link some examples and upload original video to MediaFire ?

musicvid,
Not sure what you mean cause the two statements you referred to are basically identical but here is the youtube link.

Eugenia,
As I mentioned, your link is very much appreciated and I will will no doubt read through it a few more times for clarity. But I wanted to ask- In reading through other posts I see you have also shot with the Canon T2i and recommend Neoscene prior to bringing vids into VMS. My video I was referring to was shot using 1920x1080 30p. Have you found the ultimate project settings/export settings for this?
I would like to upload hd to youtube with the best results. My most recent upload was in mp4 format. Still not looking so great.

Thank You

>Have you found the ultimate project settings/export settings for this?

There is no "ultimate", you simply reflect the source footage's attributes to the project properties, and you export with enough bitrate at the end. I watched the video you exported, and it's still not as crystal clear as it should have been. So if you have followed my exporting suggestions, make sure project properties are also correct. For example: 1920x1080 size, 29.97 fps, "none/progressive" field order, "best" quality, "none" for de-interlacing. You export in MP4/h.264/AAC in the same way, at 12->16 mbps VBR (use Main Concept).

Also, be careful how you shoot. I think the person in your video was slightly out of focus. The video also needs color correction, because currently everything has a tint of orange. All this play a role on how we perceive "good quality" video.

Since we're on the subject, any reason why you'd want to render to 12-16 mbps when I've heard that YouTube streams a max of 4mbps?

There is a very good reason. The better quality you can give your encoder, the better it come out. If you already give them a bad copy, the result will be much worse than expected.

Thanks for your response, Eugenia.
I had been using the CIneform->X264 MeGUI rendering route since I heard that that method was better but it does take more time. I'll give the MainConcept VBR 12-16K a go.

"I had been using the CIneform->X264 MeGUI rendering route since I heard that that method was better"

Believe me, you are much better off that way. Using Cineform with x264, are you running into the YUV levels bug or not? IOW, are you getting an unwanted 709 conversion, and are you able to correct it in the command line?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Musicvid - Given my limited understanding, your sentence only made 20% sense to me :)

The Cineform->X264 method is working for me but it takes longer to render since I have to do it once in Vegas and then again using MeGUI. So, if I can save time rendering to MainConcept from within Vegas, then I'd thought I'd give it a try.

Is there a big difference in quality between the 2 methods?

There will be a difference, which can be little or a lot depending on bitrate, resizing, deinterlacing, and encode options. You are welcome to compare the renders I did for another user with Sony AVC and x264 in Handbrake at http://vimeo.com/user1440262/videos (the rodeo clips). You will also find an interesting discussion on the Pro forum at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=741188. Handbrake, like MeGUI, is an x264 frontend.

Now, back to my original question. When you encode your Cineform to x264, does the result look washed out and flatter than the Cineform, or do they look essentially the same? Can you post some screenshots to compare?

I took some quick screenshots to compare the two. I can't really see a difference, can you? Both rendered at 6K bit rate.

Sony AVC:
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s22/dudeimaginethis/SonyAVC.jpg

MeGUI X264:
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s22/dudeimaginethis/MeGUI.jpg

No, there is no difference in levels. That's good news.
We can't import Cineform to Handbrake, so are using DNxHD in a 709 space, which works well.

If you are doing this video for upload to Youtube or Vimeo, you should probably be applying a Computer->Studio RGB filter on the output, because the upload servers will expand it back out without regard for source levels.

If you upload it the way it is, it will possibly look too contrasty and lose detail in the highlights. If you can provide a bit of your actual video on Mediafire I can confirm for sure if this is needed.

ETA: Posting as 'SuperSet'

I'm not sure what to look for but I did upload a short 20s sample of both the Sony AVC and MeGui versions to Mediafire. They're each about 18MB so if you get a chance to look at them, I'd appreciate any input.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z9tgwla2j2h59jh/TestPlatinumProjectAVC.mp4

http://www.mediafire.com/file/uqxtjwvx7fwapk4/TestPlatinumProjectMeGUI.mp4

Yes, use the levels plugin and select the Computer RGB to Studio RGB preset before rendering. This will make your video look flat, but it will come out right on Youtube.

Also, you should be rendering at "Best" in Vegas.

Great tips, thank you! I'm already rendering at Best so will add the Levels plugin to my workflow from now on. Also, should I increase my bitrate from 6K to 12-16K, as recommended by Eugenia? Since there's no visual difference, I'll go with either the Sony AVC or MainConcept to save time vs. the MeGUI X264.