Encoding for Riva FLV Encoder

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I don't know what the best supported format is to input to Riva FLV Encoder for youtube/myspace FLV output, but I tried using WMV.

In Vegas saved as WMV using the following settings:

Audio

Mode: CBR
Format: Windows Media Audio 9.1
Attributes: 128kps, 44kHz, stereo (A/V) CBR

Video

Mode: CBR (2-Pass)
Format: Windows Media Video 9
Image Size: 320x240
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square
Frame Rate: 23.976 (The video is a film)
Seconds Per Keyframe: 3
Video Smoothness: 100 (Sharpest)

Bit Rate

Internet/Lan: 1.5 M

*Under Project Settings, I set the Deinterlace Method to None since the Riva Encoder would deinterlace for me anyway.

Riva doesn't accepted WMV 9, so I tried using WMV 8 by changing the mode under Video to WMV V8 expecting same quality results. Instead I get a smaller video file with a lot less quality. Using WMV 9 I got a 30 MB file, but with WMV 8 I got a 12 MB file. I don't get how this is happening with the same settings unless it's just the WMV 8 codec. If that's the case, what other format supported by Riva would be the best to output as a FLV file for youtube/myspace?

Video Codecs Supported By Riva FLV Encoder:

AVI

Cinepak Codec by Radius, Cinepak by Supermac
Intel Indeo(R) Video R3.2
Microsoft Video 1
Microsoft RLE
XviD
DivX 3 Lower Motion, DivX 4, DivX 5
TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC)

MPEG

MPEG-1 (VCD)
MPEG-2 (SVCD.DVD)
MPEG-4 (XviD, MP4, 3GPP)

Quicktime

Sorenson Video 3 Pro with the audio codec MP3, IMA 4:1 (nicht QDesign Standard und Qualcomm PureVoice) or wihtout audio
Exported from Quicktime Pro
Not supported: Exported from Adobe Premiere
Not supported: QDM2 Audio Codec

Windows Media Video

WMV 7, WMV 8
MPEG-4 V3
ISO MPEG-4 V1
Not supported: WMV 9

I hear Flash is supposedly the best format you can use when uploading to youtube, WMV being second best.

[guns1inger]

You will only get a smaller file if the bitrate is lower. You haven't specified a video bitrate in your settings (above).

If Riva will take an avi file, then you could output from Vegas as an uncompressed avi file, then encode with Riva. That way you don't compress it multiple times.

[hech54]

If Riva will take an avi file, then you could output from Vegas as an uncompressed avi file, then encode with Riva. That way you don't compress it multiple times.

Exactly.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

The bit rate was 1.5Mb for both the WMV 9 and WMV 8 file.

If Riva will take an avi file, then you could output from Vegas as an uncompressed avi file, then encode with Riva. That way you don't compress it multiple times.

The only issue I have with that is disk space and was hoping there was a lossless acceptable codec in the list, but I didn't recoginze any. So I tried uncompressed AVI anyway and although the video came out fine, after converting to a FLV file the sound was ruined and replaced by some type of static sound. The AVI file itself was good (i.e. the video and sound), but the sound got messed up during the conversion.

[hech54]

Can Vegas output uncompressed at 320 x 240 size?
That will cut down on the file size a bit.

I've never had RIVA ruin my audio...in either mono or
stereo conversion. My uncompressed outputs always have
PCM (wave) audio.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I'm using PCM audio too but I don't really know what the problem is. I'm going to look into it a little more. Vegas can cut down on the resolution so that may save disk space.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

Ok, so the audio is fine now. It seems that the problem was the bit depth. On Vegas, it is set to 24 by default and I guess Riva has trouble encoding 24bit audio. I just needed to change it to 16bit for it to work.

However, now there's another problem. When rendering to uncompressed AVI the file splits after 4GB. I can't figure out a way in Vegas to set it so it saves the video as one big file.

[guns1inger]

It will b a setting on the main Render dialogue. I suspect you have something ticked that you don't need. Look up the help files for Vegas - they are pretty good.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I couldn't find anything in Vegas or in the help files to fix the problem until I found out I've been rendering to an external HDD that uses FAT32, hence the 4GB volume size limit. I had to render into my NTSF drive to exceed it.

[guns1inger]

You didn't mention the external drive and it's not in your computer specs. I would convert it to NTFS unless you need to transport files between linux or mac PCs and your windows box.