Sony Vegas video distortion problem

[Rstar]

Hi all,

Thanks in advance. I am new here. I need some help.

What I have: video files that my friend supplied to me to create a demo video. Their properties are in pic below.
basically 1920x1080 29fps
The final demo video is something that will be shared on youtube. something like 854x480.... not huge, just crisp and clean.

The program I use to edit video is SONY VEGAS HD Platinum 10.0
I've always done ok with basics in the past.

I prepared the project settings to match the format of the imported files. see next picture.



no trouble "importing the media" - but as soon as i try to WATCH one of the files in the PREVIEW WINDOW, I can see the distortion shown in NEXT PICTURE. there are intermittent 'pixelizations' and choppy bits of light. specifically, in this frame, look at the cane on the right (below her left hand). there is a grey choppy area.


so my problem is occurring BEFORE i even get to the render phase. the problem must be with the "import"? or the "project settings"?

this final picture shows the raw video as played in VLC - without the distortion. i know it isn't the exact same FRAME, but believe me, this demonstrates the "what i should see" versus "what is happening in Sony Vegas"


What I've already tried - I read on forums and did searches for about an hour so far. none of the project settings changes i tried helped. perhaps i need to CHANGE THE FORMAT OF THE RAW VIDEO BEFORE I IMPORT IT? If so,
Which software (virtualdub?)
and which format?


Please advise me. And THANK YOU!

Rosannah

[_Al_]

but your preview is set to 480x270, ..., underneath your preview window you can see:
Project: something
Preview: something

set it to Best Full, not Best Auto (above that preview window)
but then your PC might not make it in time to render preview, depends on your processor .... or maybe it even barely handles that 480x270 ...

[racer-x]

Why are your clip properties 29 fps? They should be 29.97 fps........

Try Right-Clicking on the each clip in the timeline, then select Switches > Disable Resample. See if that helps.

This is for Vegas Pro, but probably also works for Platinum.

[bigass]

Ditto to all the advice here.
- match your project settings to your media
- don't 100% trust the preview window
- select 'disable resampling' just to be sure

The most likely explanation for the glitch is that your project settings don't match the clip, 'resampling' is enabled, and Vegas is trying to invent the in-between frames to make up for the mismatch. Get the two lined up properly and I expect you'll find improvement.

Changing the format of the clip you're importing should be an action of last resort. Vegas is very good about importing pretty much anything without trouble.

You really don't know it's a problem until you render. Try all the fixes and try rendering, and see if it's still icky.

[bigass]

... *and* when you're rending, don't bother rending to that smaller size you mentioned. Render to the same gorgeous full-HD size as the source clips. Youtube will do the downsizing for you when it processed the video you upload. Youtube is unkind to video sometimes, so feed it the best quality ingredients.

[racer-x]

Alternatively you can see how a frame will look after rendering by setting the preview quality to best-full, then clicking the copy to clipboard icon and paste into an Image Editor like Irfanview or whatever..............

[turk690]

... there are intermittent 'pixelizations' and choppy bits of light. specifically, in this frame, look at the cane on the right (below her left hand). there is a grey choppy area.

I still use Premiere Pro 5.0.3, as well as Vegas 8.1 (much less often), and all AVCHD HD content seen in the preview monitor is exactly like this. Of course I was alarmed early on, but have figured out it's just the preview. Premiere, for one, likes to use its own codecs, which may or may not be why preview is like this, as opposed to them playing perfectly on WMP. You may go ahead and edit and chances are it will look great after exporting.
But I very rarely edit and chop up AVCHD files taken straight off camcorder media so it has never bothered me much. I encode them all to Cineform first, which makes previewing them fluid and snappy.

[Rstar]

Hi All, Thanks for your suggestions. I have carefully tried each one. No luck still: here is my report!

FIRST: I am not able to select 29.0000 fps on the "project settings". when i "match media settings", 29.970 is selected and the drop down menu gives me 23-something and 25 as other choices. not 29.00
off the bat, this seems like a problem - since 29.970 and 29.00 are not the same number in my experience. so why are my files with fps 29? is THIS the problem?

SECOND: I made both changes to preview window (same as media settings - and 'best full') but this has not changed what i see. (pics below)

THIRD: I did the disable resample - and i even tried under sampling to 29.011 fps but neither attempt (done separately of course) made any change (pics below)

FOURTH: i copied a sample frame to the clipboard as suggested and even RENDERED a small section as a test. ALL demonstrate FAILURE.

Pictures:

as you can see, the project and preview is now the same on the low left of preview window
set to best full above preview window
disable resample (and i tried it both WITH maintain aspect ratio and without)


this pic was copied to the clipboard after having made suggested changes


these are 2 different render settings i tried ( i know the video size is "small" i wasn't able to render to .mp4 at 1920x1080 and it didn't allow me to do it at mpeg-2 either.)





this snapshot was taken from a rendering. neither of the renderings worked. both gave these results



the problem is really occurring in the import. it is not a problem with the preview pane or the "power" of my computer. I can cursor through one frame at a time (to not "overload" my computer's head) and i can see the distortion in each frame shift about.

Do I need to compress/convert the IMPORTED FILES BEFORE IMPORTING?
Do I need a different video codec in my computer?

Do I need to..... drink more coffee today so that I can stay up all night with this???


thanks again for your willingness to help out.
Rosannah

[racer-x]

Looks to me like it's a decoder problem in your version of Vegas. It might help if you transcode your clips into a lossless codec like Lagarith or UTvideo before you import. That should rule out a decoder issue.

You will of course have to install Lagarith or UTvideo in order to transcode or decode however....

[Rstar]

ok - i'm going for UTvideo first....

[bigass]

Windows telling you the clip is 29 fps is different than it actually being 29. Windows' info rounds off. Use MediaInfo, or check the media properties in Vegas and you'll probably find it's something other than 29.

[racer-x]

Here's a quick test you can try if you want. Attached is a 7zip file. Extract it anywhere you want, example Desktop. Inside you will find an "Mpeg2_Iframe.bat" file. Simply drag one of your stubborn mp4 files into the .bat file and it will convert all your .mp4 files in the folder into I-frame Mpeg-2 .ts files that Vegas should import correctly. It should be a quick process depending on how many there are to convert. The new .ts files will be saved in the same folder as the .mp4 files.

OOPs....I messed up the script. I'm posting a corrected version.

[Rstar]

oops

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/339490-64-Bit-Vegas-Pro-9-fails-to-open-64-bit-UT-V...deo-Codec-Pack

moving past UTvideo, now onto lagarith.

regarding the convert to mpeg-2 i actually just did a really dirty test of that on my own with an old video converter i had on my other laptop. it worked. of course, now i have to figure out whether lagarith or converting all the videos is better.
my video converter only does fixed bitrate. so..... ?

i don't know. but at least i am on some path of hope.

[racer-x]

Lagarith would give lossless conversion, so the quality will be better. The file size will also be much greater than Mpeg-2 however......

[Rstar]

OK - final results:

UTvideo may have worked, but i think i did something wrong - so i could re-install and re-do, if i learned it were highly superior.

Lagarith works - i know how to render each video using the codec and create an .avi file. then i would re-import the .avi files into a 'new' project and edit/work with them

I was not able to download your attachment, racer-x. but seems like converting to mpeg-2 is a lower quality option - so i will leave that for now. it is a last resort - i suppose.

looks like the solution is lagarith (or other codec) and i learned how to USE a codec in the 'custom' render settings for .avi


it's tough enough to do this all day, much less learn about codec packs....so, i don't understand the deep whys of all this computer convolution - but i can move forward with my project! and that is what counts!
The Circus World thanks you - but just the acrobats. no clowns, of course!

I THANK YOU all.

[racer-x]

Nice photography! Good luck on your project.....

[Rstar]

hmph. just rendered a whole file (not a segment) using lagarith and now it doesn't work again. ok computer. back to other plan. convert to mpeg2.

[racer-x]

Use my batch encode I posted above. It uses FFmbc to batch encode your .mp4s into High Quality, High Bitrate Mpeg-2 with I-frames only and put them into a .ts (Transport Stream) container that vegas can use. It's doubtful you'll get better quality using your average Mpeg-2 encoder.

If you want to use it to batch encode other formats like mov, avi, MTS and so on, You can open the .bat file in notepad. Then change the file extension in the beginning of the script from ("*.mp4") to ("*.mov") or whatever and save it.