Sony Vegas Pro 11: MP4 rendering problems *Help Needed*

[CaptainTwatson]

I had heard that MP4 was an awesome format to render your HD videos to if you wanted small file sizes, but great quality. Here's my equipment:

HV30, HDV tapes

PC Specs: FX-8120 8-core processor, 10 gb of DDR3 ram

I rendered a 12 second intro to MP4 while using After Effects, and it was great. While editing a quick trailer in Vegas, I used this intro at the beginning of the trailer. After I was done editing, I was rendering the entire project to MP4. When I view it, it's all choppy and stutters. Audio is intact however. The intro refuses to move at all, and I'm wondering if it's because it was already rendered to MP4... have I basically screwed myself over? Any help would be much appreciated.

[CaptainTwatson]

Any ideas? Anyone? Rendering to any format produces a bad video as well... so I don't know what's wrong. Brand new computer, seemingly amazing specs.... is it just Vegas itself?

[Krane]

Any ideas? Anyone? Rendering to any format produces a bad video as well... so I don't know what's wrong. Brand new computer, seemingly amazing specs.... is it just Vegas itself?

It's most likely an operator error. However, without knowing your exact specifications and render setting, there's no way to know for sure.

Incidentally, the best render is that one that best suits your destination. In other words, you wouldn't put on a tuxedo if you were going to the beach. MP4 is popular, but its not best for every occasion.

[Playing]

I rendered a 12 second intro to MP4 while using After Effects

Maybe it's just an incompatibility with After Effects. I have a clip rendered in Pixela from when I first got my camera and Vegas refused to import it.

Edit: Just checked again: Vegas crashes when I try to open the Pixela clip and it is a perfectly OK file.

[cgbier]

MP4 is a delivery format, not really useful for editing. Your issue might be that you used a file that had already compressed the crap out of it and compressed it a second time. If you render out something from AE to be used in another app, render it out as a AVI file (if possible uncompressed) or get an intermediate codec from Cineform, Matrox or Avid (please some Windows user chip in here).
Your system should have enough horsepower to run MP4 (h.264).

[blondandfun]

Are there any .mov files being used? Those can cause problems on a PC.

[CaptainTwatson]

Are there any .mov files being used? Those can cause problems on a PC.

I've heard about that, but no, not a single .mov file. Only .mp2 and .mp4. HV30's produce .mp2's, right? The AVCHD files are .mp2 I thought. If not, then AVCHD and .mp4 are the only files being used, and only one piece of media is .mp4, that being the intro I rendered from AE. I tried removing the intro from my Sony Vegas project and then rendering it so there would be no .mp4 files, but the final product was still choppy and bad.

As a side note: besides .mp4, what else would everyone recommend using to get the best quality?

[Krane]

I've heard about that, but no, not a single .mov file. Only .mp2 and .mp4. HV30's produce .mp2's, right? The AVCHD files are .mp2 I thought. If not, then AVCHD and .mp4 are the only files being used, and only one piece of media is .mp4, that being the intro I rendered from AE. I tried removing the intro from my Sony Vegas project and then rendering it so there would be no .mp4 files, but the final product was still choppy and bad.

As a side note: besides .mp4, what else would everyone recommend using to get the best quality?

Again the quality depend on your destination. You wouldn't send a refrigerator through the mail. And an HD quality video would likely be wasted if its final destination is to view on a CRT from the 1980's.

[CaptainTwatson]

Again the quality depend on your destination. You wouldn't send a refrigerator through the mail. And an HD quality video would likely be wasted if its final destination is to view on a CRT from the 1980's.

My destination is YouTube.

[cgbier]

As a side note: besides .mp4, what else would everyone recommend using to get the best quality?

Your best quality would be to NOT edit mp4 files, but transcode them first as mentioned above.

The output quality depends on your encoder. h.264 is terrific for Youtube. I have found that x.264 gives better results than the standard encoder that is built into Apple Compressor...

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect...._540p_h264.mov

[Krane]

My destination is YouTube.

Then there you have your answer. The h.264 would work nicely.

Actually, most rendering software have the "youtube" preset already there for you. In any event, I think they give you 2GB, so size really shouldn't be an issue.

[blondandfun]

I tried removing the intro from my Sony Vegas project and then rendering it so there would be no .mp4 files, but the final product was still choppy and bad.

Did you watch the preview window during render? The preview window typically shows you frame by frame what it'll look like. If the preview window looked good, it's a codec issue. Also try playing back on both quicktime and Windows media player.

On the timeline, right click media properties and copy paste the "details" of the media onto this thread so we can see. Also include screenshots of the "project properties" and "render properties" dialogue boxes.

[CaptainTwatson]

Here's the intro's details: General
Name: Downcast Outcast Productions.mp4
Folder: C:\Users\Grant\Videos
Type: Sony AVC
Size: 12.09 MB (12,375,840 bytes)
Created: Monday, July 09, 2012, 8:26:55 PM
Modified: Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10:16:17 AM
Accessed: Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 12:07:26 PM
Attributes: Archive

Streams
Video: 00:00:16.216, 29.970 fps progressive, 1920x1080x12, AVC
Audio: 00:00:16.213, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC

ACID information
ACID chunk: no
Stretch chunk: no
Stretch list: no
Stretch info2: no
Beat markers: no
Detected beats: no

Other metadata
Regions/markers: no
Command markers: no

Media manager
Media tags: no

Plug-In
Name: compoundplug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\Vegas Pro 11.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\compoundplug
Format: Sony AVC
Version: Version 11.0 (Build 370)
Company: Sony Creative Software Inc.

Here's the screen grabs:

project properties.jpg

render settings.jpg

EDIT: I'll try downloading that codec. Quicktime fared no better than Media Player unfortunately. I realize my variable bitrates are ridiculous, but trust me when I say the video rendered just as bad even with reasonable looking bitrates. I apologize if the media details I supplies were not what you were wanting, that was just the most detailed tab I saw.

[Krane]

You've gone way off the deep end. Render according to the most basic setup. Just use whatever preset you have available and leave the rest on their defaults.

Everything looks good to me except for maybe field order which I believe is top to bottom. And audio which is 44,100 but that really shouldn't be an issue.

[CaptainTwatson]

I redid the intro in AE and rendered it as an .AVI this time instead. Rendering it in Sony Vegas with the rest of the footage now reveals something: the intro is fine. It must've been the fact that I rendered it as an .MP4 before, like somebody else mentioned. Now that just leaves the actual footage from the HV30. Has anybody ever had problems rendering in SVP with their HV's and what was the fix?

EDIT: Changing my pixel format on the project properties from 8-bit to 32-bit has produced a render that shows me almost all of the video, albeit still choppy. Are there any 32-bit settings I can mess around with?

[CaptainTwatson]

Sorry for double-posting, but I'm unable to edit that last post again.

Anyway, I guess the 32-bit change was just a freak occurence because I haven't been able to duplicate the results at all. Those .m2t's still aren't rendering right, but the After Effects created .AVI file does. I've rendered .m2t's to .MP4 flawlessly before...

[CaptainTwatson]

Mods, I am terribly sorry for posting more than once. But I am not given an option to edit previous posts.

I have discovered the biggest breakthrough yet: Sony Vegas Pro is the problem. I took one clip from my HV30, attempted to render it in SVP, and it produced the same terrible problem. However, rendering this same clip in After Effects yielded an amazing .MP4. Smooth and great quality. So this is a problem SVP has caused. Any ideas on how I fix this? I don't think it's a rendering or project property problem, but something deeper.

[blondandfun]

Omg, thise settings are insane. Forget this 1440 x 1080 and 1.33 crap.

Your project properties needs to be 1920x1080, ratio 1.0. If u are using hdv footage itll automatically fix. This is the settings i use when i combine hv20 footage and dslr footage.

Secondly, good lord its set on way too high bitrate. Pcs dont playback 50 mbps well, duh!

U need to burn this on a bluray and retest or lower the bitrate below 10mbps. The pc cant do well above 10mbps no matter how fast it is because usb is 12 mbps max, the rest gores to the buffer, or temp, folder and wreaks havoc on the machine.

[Steve_Karl]

I'd not want to render to 1440 x 1080 for anything.

For Youtube I use either 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080.

In my experience 44 is the best audio choice for youtube.

[CaptainTwatson]

Omg, thise settings are insane. Forget this 1440 x 1080 and 1.33 crap.

Your project properties needs to be 1920x1080, ratio 1.0. If u are using hdv footage itll automatically fix. This is the settings i use when i combine hv20 footage and dslr footage.

Secondly, good lord its set on way too high bitrate. Pcs dont playback 50 mbps well, duh!

U need to burn this on a bluray and retest or lower the bitrate below 10mbps. The pc cant do well above 10mbps no matter how fast it is because usb is 12 mbps max, the rest gores to the buffer, or temp, folder and wreaks havoc on the machine.

My footage is not automatically corrected anymore. I imported the footage, and was left with black bars on the side, which is a problem I never had before. I have to manually tell each clip not to maintain its aspect ratio.

I'm fully aware that the bitrate was much too high. I even called myself out on it. I was testing anything and everything because I had no idea my PC couldn't handle certain bitrates at the time.

I don't have money for burnable Blu-Rays. I just want to get my videos onto YouTube and call it a day.

I'd not want to render to 1440 x 1080 for anything.

For Youtube I use either 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080.

In my experience 44 is the best audio choice for youtube.

I quickly figured out that I'll need to render to 1920 x 1080 haha.

[blondandfun]

That was wrong thing to do. U can check a box in render dialogue to fit all video to render output.

I give up.. Read more.