lossless encoding of vegas project files

[bluesix]

I have dozens of Vegas Video projects that I have encoded for web over the years. I wish to transfer them to masters so I can encode them in flash and whatever codecs that come available in the future.


What are my best options for saving the files as lossless masters?

The source is dv avi. I have the buggy huffyuv 2.0 installed on my pc but it doesn't show up in vegas in its list of possible codecs.

What about a 4 or 6mpbs wmv file? Or keep it as avi? I can't re-encode to dv so that would make for some very LARGE files.

bluesix.

[Dark Shikari]

WMV doesn't have a lossless mode, and if you think DV is large, just remember; DV isn't lossless, and lossless is generally bigger than DV.

[johnsonlam]

The source is dv avi. I have the buggy huffyuv 2.0 installed on my pc but it doesn't show up in vegas in its list of possible codecs.


You can throw away the 2.0, never keep buggy codec or you'll ruin your video.

Squid_80 patched HuffYUV to 2.30, it's not backward compatible but it's bugfree (at least I didn't find a bug yet)

Or try Lagarith, it's a bit slower but got better compression.

http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html


What about a 4 or 6mpbs wmv file? Or keep it as avi? I can't re-encode to dv so that would make for some very LARGE files.


WMV is lossy no matter how high the bitrate is, therefore avoid it if possible.

Also for lossless video you need to prepare lot of disk space, since loseless can be very large, (usually >30GB), but it's a MUST for editing and filtering, for smaller file to keep, you can encode to XviD later.

[bluesix]

Thanks. I have successfully installed the Lagarinth codec. It is showing up fine in Virtualdub but I do not yet see it as an encoding option in Sony Vegas. Anyone know how to install it to vegas?

Otherwise I guess I could save the vegas project as an AVI and then run it through virtual dub with Lagarinth. Time consuming but I suppose that would work.

[benwaggoner]

Thanks. I have successfully installed the Lagarinth codec. It is showing up fine in Virtualdub but I do not yet see it as an encoding option in Sony Vegas. Anyone know how to install it to vegas?
I fear it's still a VfW codec, and Vegas is DirectShow.

Man, we've been trying to kill VfW for over a decade now!

Otherwise I guess I could save the vegas project as an AVI and then run it through virtual dub with Lagarinth. Time consuming but I suppose that would work.
The Lag's going to be bigge than the DV anyway, so I don't know if it'd help you that much.

WMV is commonly used as a mezzanine format. You can do 1-pass Quality VBR at 98 or so, and then do 1-pass VBR WMA or WMA Lossless for the audio. It'll be smaller than the DV and just as good quality.

[Dark Shikari]

WMV is commonly used as a mezzanine format. You can do 1-pass Quality VBR at 98 or so, and then do 1-pass VBR WMA or WMA Lossless for the audio. It'll be smaller than the DV and just as good quality.WMV is an interframe codec though, and as a result is a very bad choice for an editing-friendly format.

[benwaggoner]

WMV is an interframe codec though, and as a result is a very bad choice for an editing-friendly format.
Oh, not so bad as that. Tools like Premiere Pro and some of Avid's products have native support. For cuts-only editing, it's quite similar to MPEG-2. Final Cut Pro + Flip4Mac works nicely as well. No worse than editing HDV or AVCHD.

I certainly wouldn't want to use an interframe codec for stuff I was going to do a big edit on, but for archiving content mainly for later transcoding, it's fine. It's used a ton this way in Hollywood post houses (lots of VOD files are transcoded from WMV intermediates).

[foxyshadis]

If you do plan to use this file for editing in the future, especially any kind of backward play (cheesy as those are) you should change the keyframe interval to 100-1000 ms (2-30 frames usually), depending on what kind of compression to seekability tradeoff you want to have.

[Diodato]

I fear it's still a VfW codec, and Vegas is DirectShow.
Vegas DirectShow??? I don't think so.

Man, we've been trying to kill VfW for over a decade now!
Seems quite unsuccessfully... :p

@bluesix
When rendering choose the AVI container as your output format, select "custom" template and under the Video tab you can select your "Video format". Lagarith (if you installed it correctly) shall appear as one of the formats in the dropdown. The Configure button gives you to access the codec's properties (if any).
Cheers

[benwaggoner]

Vegas DirectShow??? I don't think so.
What do you think it is? I know they do DMO access for some stuff.

[Diodato]

What do you think it is? I know they do DMO access for some stuff.
I believe they use a proprietary API for the bundled codecs (like Mainconcept or Sony's own) and standard documented ways for QT and AVI (VFW).
I'm only talking about the _video_ codecs.

[Ranguvar]

I use Vegas 8 Pro, and it definitely has some level of VfW support. It detects the Xvid and ffdshow VfW encoders, at least, and I can use them.

You might want to try using ffdshow's HuffYUV or FFV1 encoding, if it displays. If not, most likely a Vegas or codec problem...

[johnsonlam]

Man, we've been trying to kill VfW for over a decade now!


I wish Microsoft should abandon the worn out standard (such as VFW) and make everything simple, just like Apple's CoreVideo.