Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Mp3 files. Do they mix?

[henrique_rp]

Hello, this is my first post, but I have been reading this forum for quite some time as there is invaluable information here for video editing.

Most of the movie editing I perform is quite simple editing, cut, cropping and text insertion in videos I get from youtube and from videos I record myself. I used to play these videos in an old DVD player and I always converted them to MPEG1, which played no problem after being converted by Vegas.

A month ago, I bought a new Philips DVD player that plays DivX and the such. This is when my problems started. Of course I wanted to use the DivX feature and I then started converting my videos using the DivX codec and MP3 audio.

The video plays seamlessly either for DivX or Xvid, but none of the videos have sound.

This is what I've found out so far.

My DVD player (Philips 3254) can play MP3-encoded sound just fine as long as it appears like this under GSpot:

0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 (CBR)
44100Hz 192 kb/s tot , Joint Stereo

This is a little screen shot I took from GSpot:



Now, if I use Vegas to convert my videos and I choose MP3 as the audio codec, this is what I get:

0x0055 (MP3)
44100Hz 192 kb/s tot (2 chnls)


And this is the screen shot from GSpot:



If I select MP3 as the audio codec, and render the video using Vegas, I get the description above from GSpot and it'll have no sound in my DVD player.


What puzzles me is that if I use SUPER Video Converter from Erighsoft or VirtualDub, which are freeware, I can get the 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 (CBR) codec and my DVD player recognizes the sound just fine. However, if I use Vegas, which is much more complex, not to mention costly, all I get is this other codec description [0x0055 (MP3)] that my DVD player does not recognize. (It plays under windows media player though)

I did some experimentation with other video formats and:

If I initially convert the videos to MPEG1 using SUPER, for example, and then convert the whole video into an MP3 audio file using Vegas, and then, under Vegas, attach this audio file to the video and re-render it using DivX and MP3 codecs, I get that first audio codec that my DVD Player reads. Quite puzzling I think.

So the bottom line is: Can Vegas handle MP3 codecs and output them to this particular format that my dvd player reads? Or can it really only output this weird 0x0055 (MP3) audio? I am doing anything wrong with the conversion?

I hope this topic doesn't sound too dumb. If it has been answered before and someone could point me in the right direction of another post, I'd very much appreciate it. Hope I didn't bother anyone with the long read.

Thank you beforehand for any help.

[filmboss80]

Vegas is not a Divx video maker or an mp3 audio maker. It's chief design is not to make MPEG1 videos either. YouTube videos are flv files. You say you make some videos yourself, but do not say what format. Are you taping on a miniDV camcorder? There is nothing in your post that tells us what format the video clips are that you are trying to drop on the Vegas timeline. Have you even read the Vegas manual to see what kind of files it will import and export? It seems to me you are misusing a good tool (Vegas) to accomplish something (divx) that another application can do better.

[henrique_rp]

Hello filmboss80,

Thank you for your reply. Let me explain a bit more thoroughly how I edit my videos.

It will sound amateurish, but that's what I have for now. I use my digital camera to record some videos. As I said, they are mostly amateur, because I am only learning and I don't have the money to invest in a true digital video camcorder. The camera outputs AVI's and I edit them with Vegas.

For the youtube part. I download the videos using that keepvid site which results in either a flv or mp4 video. I, then, convert this video to Avi compressed by Divx and MP3 using SUPER and edit them with Vegas.

As I had said before, never had I used Vegas to produce Divx's-compressed files and neither MP3's. All I did was convert them to MPEG, so I could play them in my old DVD player.

I had already heard that non-linear video editors such as Vegas and Adobe Premiere don't do so well with Avi's containers and DivX and MP3 compression. But, as you can see, the difference among the codec that Vegas outputs is mighty small when compared to the ones that VirtualDub and SUPER output. Of course I say that from my layman standpoint. I don't know how much computing and processing is required to produce this 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 (CBR) instead of 0x0055 (MP3).

And another thing is that given the fact the Vegas Movie Studio is much more beginner's oriented - which is also highlighted by its smaller price - I thought that maybe some of these limitations that Sony Vega Pro had wouldn't appear in Vegas Movie Studio. Well, apparently I was wrong.

I think Vegas is a great Video Editing Software. Oh, please, don't get me wrong. I have a friend who deals exclusively with high-end video editing and he owns both Vegas and Adobe Premiere, and of course a whole shebang of other programs. And when I see the things he can do. Gosh, it's jaw-dropping. I am still learning how to deal with Vegas and one thing I like is its user-friendliness, while still maintaining its ability to produce very complex things.

So, coming back to the matter at hand, is this file output problem solvable? I mean, is it feasible? And if not is there another movie editor in the $80-$120 range that also has a friendly user interface such as Vegas, but that can handle DivX and MP3 well?

Again, I thank you for any input regarding my problem.

[guns1inger]

Short answer - no. That you perceive this issue as a short coming of Vegas Pro pretty much shows that you don't quite understand the audience that Vegas is aimed, and that you are probably using the wrong tools and wrong formats at various stages of your process.

Issue 1. Divx is not a format designed for editing. It is designed to give you decent quality compressed video for playback. Like all mpeg based compression, Divx quickly loses quality if it is repeatedly encoded, so you need a smart rendering editor to work with it. None of the major editors support this for Divx.

Issue 2. SUPER. There is simply no place in a pipeline for SUPER is quality is the main goal. If quality is in the lower half of your list of priorities then perhaps you might use it. There are simply better tools around.

That said, if your source is over compressed youtube based footage, quality isn't really an issue.

Issue 3. Hardware requirements for Divx. To get Divx playback on standard Divx enabled players the files need to fit a fairly narrow set of criteria.

If I was following your pipeline, I would make the following changes

1. No SUPER. I would use AVI Demux or virtualdub to convert the video to a lossless format such as Huffyuv or lagarith.

2. Edit in Vegas, then output the final piece as losslessly compressed video

3. Convert to Divx encoded AVI using AutoGK

These changes will preserve what little quality you have without repeatedly degrading the quality by needless lossy encoding, and ensure hardware playback compliance of the final Divx file.

Before you start complaining about having to use extra steps, think about why you are doing this. You can do it fast, or you can do it right. Doing it right means using the correct tools for the job. Doing it fast means you really don't care what it looks like.

[henrique_rp]

My goodness... I got the answer I was hopping for. Thanks a bunch Guns1inger. I honestly don't mind going through a few more steps. As you've noticed, quality is not paramount for I neither have the hardware nor the money to acquire the necessary hardware and software for a flawless edition.

However, preserving some of of the quality still resides as non-optional. I am a Dentist, but as teaching has always been a passion to me, I am also an English teacher here in Brazil, and I use a lot of movies in my classes. These come either from youtube or from recordings I make myself, as classrooms and students have their very particular needs that must to be attended to. The videos are simple, yet, I try to do the best I can with what I have.

I have read quite a few things about video editing, but most tutorials fall short on the category I need and tend to be too simple or way beyond the gibberish I am able to filter and comprehend. What you've said sums it up pretty well, I think. At least now I have a good starting point and I will also be able to continue using Vegas.

So thanks a lot and if there are any more suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate them.