Vegas 7 Mpeg 2-Pass Renders Like Crap!

[GreyDeath]

I just recently upgraded from Vegas 4 to Vegas 7 specificly for the 2-Pass capablility. However, when I encoded an Mpeg2 file for a DVD, the resulting video was disappointing. Any sort of fast pan resulted in Macroblock City.

Importing the files into Maestro, which shows a nifty graph of the bitrate throughout the video, I found that the 2-Pass files are rendered like they were Constant Bit Rate. I've included a picture below as a comparison between the 2-Pass file, 2-Pass with Closed GOP, 1-Pass, and finally TMPGEnc 2-Pass.

The files are all rendered at 4300kbps. Variable Bit Rate was selected and 2-Pass is only an option with it. I'm using Vegas 7.0b I'm very familiar with the settings layout from Vegas 4 so I don't think I missed any new features that might render VBR like CBR. If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, I'd like to hear them.

[GreyDeath]

Anyone else with Vegas 7 having this problem?

[edDV]

Anyone else with Vegas 7 having this problem?

I doubt many have version 7 yet. V6 works fine.

[Exousia]

I have Vegas 7b and use it quite heavily, however, I render as AVI, then use different software to convert to MPEG and author with DVD-Lab. I have not had problems using 1 pass and frankly have not tried 2 pass encoding. I love the flexibility and stability of the software compared to Adobe Premiere which I used previously.

[Element]

i see that you all use this vegas to edit your video, nobody use Premiere???

[guns1inger]

Premiere has it's following, but as the question was specific to Vegas, mostly Vegas users will respond.

[kevo777]

I frame serve my Vegas projects out to a dummy AVI with Debugmode's FrameServer and then use an external encoder for my MPEG work. Vegas' MPEG encoder has never given me that warm and fuzzy feeling. If memory serves I believe it's actually Mainconcept's encoder.

[GreyDeath]

To Element, I tried using Premiere after using Video Factory (a consumer version of Vegas back before Sony bought it) and found it was not intuitive at all. Vegas has a really easy Drag and Drop, Click and Drag sensiblity that Premeire doesn't have. Premiere may have more features as far as FX goes, but my projects aren't at that level of sophistication. I hear most companies are moving to Final Cut Pro now anyways. :P

To the Vegas 2 Pass problem, thanks for the input. I guess I'll leave it alone and continue doing 1 Pass. I'd use TMPGEnc to do MPG rendering, but a lot of times I dont have enough HD space to make a 2 Hour Dummy DV-AVI file. The Mainconcept encoder does it's job adequately for my purposes, but I still wish the 2 Pass worked better since that's why I upgraded.

[guns1inger]

If you use the Debugmode Frameserver then you don't need the 2 hour 'dummy file'. Just a small signpost file ( a few 100kbs) and tmpgenc can encode directly from the Vegas timeline.

[GreyDeath]

Thanks for the input guns1inger, but i've used Frameserver before and it leaves my system really buggy. Unless they've majorly improved it, I prefer to stay away from it.