What format to choose when rendering

[lordhutt]

Hi,

I'm using Movie Studio Platinum 15. I'm about to edit 14 years worth of videos.
Mainly just trimming and adding transitions and some titles.
My big question is when done what should I choose to render them with the minimum quality loss?
I'm not interested in burning optical discs... primary use will be watching from my home server with Kodi on an Nvidia Shield.

As you can see in the pic I have quite a large amount of options... I would assume that the program would recommend the best possible solution but I don't think it is. For example the particular file that I used to create that pic has 5.1 audio which isn't selected by default.

Below is the info from Mediainfo for the particular file I used

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Most of my file will be of this type and one other from my previous camcorder.... plus some various phone clips. But I don't think I will be mixing any formats.

General
ID : 0 (0x0)
Complete name : I:\Home Movies\Gymnastics\2016-12-10 Meet (1).MTS
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 136 MiB
Duration : 1 min 6 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 17.3 Mb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate : 18.0 Mb/s
Recorded date : 2016-12-10 08:53:23-04:00
Writing application : Sony

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=2, N=15
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1 min 5 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 16.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan type, store method : Separated fields
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.257
Stream size : 127 MiB (93%)
IrisFNumber : 1.800000

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 1 min 6 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -67 ms
Stream size : 3.53 MiB (3%)
Service kind : Complete Main

Text
ID : 4608 (0x1200)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : PGS
Codec ID : 144
Duration : 1 min 5 s
Delay relative to video : -67 ms




[Attachment 50700 - Click to enlarge]

[johnmeyer]

Use h.264 MP4 using the Sony/Magix codec and not the Mainconcept (I only have Vegas Pro, not Studio, so perhaps you don't have both options). Use one of the higher data rates from the presets (16 mbps, or higher, for the HD stuff). Use resolution that matches your source material: 720x480 for old VHS and 8mm video and 1920x1080 for the HD stuff.