Rendering .MTS files from my Canon HF-S100 in Vegas Pro 8.0 for youtube.

[fullerfour]

I recently bought a Canon HF-S100 for use in film projects to upload to Youtube. The thing is, I'm completely new to the balancing act that is video file management. I barely grasp the concept of interlacing and progressive, but still, I'm learning. I understand that shooting in 24p as opposed to the standard 60i gives your video a more filmic look, which is what I'm aiming for.

With that in mind, I filmed a few test shots in the camera's 24p mode and imported them in Vegas. Now here's where my confusion starts. The first thing I noticed was that under the basic information of the raw .mts file was the framerate: 29.97 FPS. As opposed to what I thought should read 24 or 23.976 FPS. Ignoring that, I continued on to rendering, just to see if I could find a format that wouldn't lose the quality of the 1920x1080 footage...

...And failed. I tried multiple formats and settings (not completely grasping the effects of the settings, but still), and ended up with something either entirely unplayable or with something that looked terrible when in motion. If you've read this entire wall of text, keep in mind I'm completely new to this and would appreciate ANY help.

So basically, my newbie question is this: what do you do with your raw .MTS files in order to get them rendered for Youtube in all of their full 1920x1080 HD goodness.

[guns1inger]

If you right-click on a clip on the timeline you can see and adjust properties. Sometimes Vegas (and other editors) misinterpret the clip. Also, make sure your project is set to 24p before you import, and of course, that you have appropriate output settings configured as well.

Does Youtube even do 1080 ? I though it was still limited to 720p ?

Regardless, the amount o compression applied to meet Youtubes space restrictions means something has to give, and that something is quality. While clips are looking better on youtube than they used to, they don't look as good as the source.

[fullerfour]

Thanks for the fast response. At this point, I'm more curious as to why the raw clip is recognized as 29.97 FPS (NTSC). I looked at the footage in Pinnacle Studio 11 just to be sure, and it said the same thing.

From my understanding, the "p" in 24p means 24 frames, progressive. This is what I assumed my footage was shot at. But I found in the clip properties (right clicking the timeline in Vegas) that the clip was set to "Upper Field First" in Field Order, which I'm guessing is interlaced.

I'm completely clueless as to whether or not this would affect my video quality, but I'm sure I shot in 24p. And this is apparently not 24p. Any advice?

[guns1inger]

Try MediaInfo for a final confirmation. Perhaps more reading of the camera manual is in order ?

[fullerfour]

Thanks for the link. MediaInfo said the same thing about the framerate. Oh well, I appreciate the advice.

Surely I'm doing something wrong, I'm off to find out what.

[aedipuss]

the 24p is recorded into a 30i(60i in advertising jargon) stream. you need to inverse telecine it to get it to real 24p. fairly common with canon consumer cams. not a real useful format for a consumer anyway. 24p is too slow for anything but set tripod shots anyway.

[edDV]

You need to decode and inverse telecine your AVCHD 24p before you import to Vegas 8.
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/01/04/canon-avchd-24p-pulldown-removal/