Frameserving from Sony Vegas into MXF format

[24fps]

Hi all,

I recently discovered an AVS script that uses Mvtools2 to create slow-motion. After several tests I gotta say I am most impressed with the results.

My workflow was fairly simple, I simply Frameserve out of Sony Vegas and open the script through Vdub.

My problem is that now I would like to apply this slow-motion technique to all the clips in my current project before editing it. This is not hte first time I needed to correct and/or adjusts clips, export them and import them again in order to be able to edit with greater ease. In this kind of situation I would simply export all those clips in a 50 mbps MXF format. As far as I can tell this is a lossless a workflow as it can get.

For my current project it seems I won't e able to do the same since I can't frameserve to Vdub and encode it in MXF.

What would you recommend for a lossless workflow in this situation?

Thanks,

Phil

[poisondeathray]

I would encode (apply the mvtools2 script) to a lossless intermediate e.g. ut video codec, lagarith, huffyuv, etc... then import those AVI's into vegas . Filesizes will be large, so make sure you have extra HDD space

You can frameserve in without large intermediate files (e.g. AVFS), but there is extra overhead, and it's slower, more sluggish to edit, especially if you are applying (slowish) avisynth filters in realtime

BTW, MXF is just a wrapper - it says nothing about the video. It might be DNxHD, it might be DVCProHD, it might be MPEG2 etc...

[edDV]

MXF is a container. Common implemtations are Sony XDCAM-EX (MPeg2) or Panasonic P2 DVCProHD or DV25/DV50 in MXF wrapper. Also fully uncompressed 4224/4444.

[24fps]

Thanks poisondeathray,

I tried both lagarith and Huffyuv and they worked out great! The former gave me a 185mbps while the latter was 325mbps. Since the original files were encoded in 43mbps this is quite the overkill!

Would you happen to know of a codec that would let me encode at 50mbps?

Thanks

[poisondeathray]

Thanks poisondeathray,

I tried both lagarith and Huffyuv and they worked out great! The former gave me a 185mbps while the latter was 325mbps. Since the original files were encoded in 43mbps this is quite the overkill!

Would you happen to know of a codec that would let me encode at 50mbps?

Thanks

50Mb/s? - Not lossless as per your original request if lagarith gave you 185Mb/s on that sample

Even something "visually lossless" like cineform or dnxhd will only be slightly smaller than lagarith, maybe ~100Mb/s

Maybe I-frame MPEG2 would be ok, but at 50Mb/s it's going to have significant artifacting, you need >150 -200Mb/s for HD

Long GOP MPEG2 is ok around 100Mb/s for HD for a lossy intermediate

Long GOP AVC is ok around 50Mb/s for lossy intermediate, but it's difficult/sluggish to edit . I-frame is much smoother to edit but you need higher bitrates for equivalent quality

I guess it depends what is acceptable quality loss for you. Or you can try avfs - no large intermediate files at all

[24fps]

Thanks for all the info, lagarith it is then !