[Sony Vegas] Best Render Settings for small mp4 videos

[Pepsi Twist]

Hi, I'm new to editing.
I'm looking to render small files (<8Mb) to post on Discord (apparently only mp4s work) and I wanted to know if the render settings and format I'm using is the most appropriate for this type of small videos.

Below is a template for videos that have less than 15 seconds. For longer videos I bring down the average bit rate

[Attachment 52296 - Click to enlarge]

I have some quick questions about some options here
What does Number of reference frames mean? And what is the best choice for small videos? What happens if I increase it?
The same goes with Number of slices and Two-Pass.

Does changing the frame rate and maintaining the bit rate have any effect on the video quality?
thanks!

[johnmeyer]

Just use one of the defaults. They are designed to provide good results without having to learn about all the options.

[smrpix]

Two rules of thumb:

Using anything other than the original source frame rate makes it worse. (With certain exceptions)

Higher bitrate within the same codec provides better quality, with a LOT of provisos.


You may want to take a short segment with moderate motion, 10 or 15 seconds and experiment with different settings to see what the effects are for yourself.

[zuttlover]

I think "use one of the defaults" is a horrible answer to his question, not gonna lie. Had to make an account just to say this. He's asking what type of codec and potential settings/preset he should use to guarantee a small file size. "one of the defaults" include ones that'll make a 30 second video 2mb or 100+ MB, which can be confusing if you aren't too familiar with how render settings work. Not all versions of the program have the "estimated file size" in the corner of the render screen the newer ones have.

For discord I've been using the "Memory stick" presets in the Sony AVC/MVC for 50-90 second videos. You don't really need more than SD for goofy discord videos either way, you're better off just rendering stuff normally and posting to streamable or unlisted youtube if you want high resolution/bitrate results.

[_Al_]

Also a reminder, there is voukoder plugin for Vegas. Installation has two stages: Voukoder application and then plugin. Better results could be obtained specifically for starving bitrate because of using x264 encoder. This is a late response, but anyway, op might need 2pass for his specific reasons perhaps but voukoder can encode with CRF method which is one pass only. Huge advantage.