Rendering in Vegas - what determines the codec you use?

[nzo]

When you render a project in Vegas 6, do you use the MainConcept codec that comes with Vegas? And why?

I want to stay away from the bane of "The Best Codec" but I wonder what influences your choice of MainConcept or other codecs, such as Canopus and CCE.

I guess not everyone's goal in using their favorite codec is quality, but rather how many movies they can fit on a DVD, and so on.

My own quest is for quality, though with my limited experience I'm still not sure what that means.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

[jtoolman2000]

Well, I only own Main Concept so that is what I use Vegas to render to NTSC 720x480 PMG2 SInce nothing I ever produce exceeds 90 to 120 mins I allow it to you the default template for NTSC DVD I do not try to convert other sources downloaded or not to DVD, just not really worth it if your goals as is mine, is top quality. Remember that quality is all perception of the viewr. One person will like something and another will not. Let me just say that view my results on a Toshiba 52" DLP TV and it looks glorious.

There has been many comparisons made by a few well intentioned individuals where thay have spent countless hours preparing clips, comparing all the big name MPG encoders and then they have posted screen grabs of each assuming that you will be able to discern the diference between them and thus make and intelligent decission which one to use. The truth is that it can be really difficult to see major diferences between encoders with that sort of test. You really need to see them playing of the TV you will be using. Even then, if you were to invite 5-6 people to run a little focus group, chances are probably pretty good they would all choose different ones as the being the "BEST"

[nzo]

Thanks jtoolman.

Well, perhaps I'd better give MainConcept another more thorough test. I only used it once, on a clip transferred from VHS via my ADVC-100, and was disappointed with the result.

Cheers.

[jtoolman2000]

Unless you are caping a DV source the results from most VHS are going to be mostly a dissappointment as you have experienced. Going to MPG always results in a certain amount ot degredation.

If I am going to transfer VHS to DVD I use my DVD recorder with a VCR attached to it. It is a 1:1 simmultanious burning of the disc as you watch it.

That's one disadvantage in that it takes ther same amount of time as the original is long. Results are truly excellent if you do not go beyond 2 hours per disc.

They are really cheap now and if you have ton of VHS to trasfer, I consider them invaluable.

[nzo]

Would the VCR>DVD recorder method give you an improvement in quality over an ADVC-100?